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George  Washington  Flowers 
Memorial  Collection 

DUKE  UNIVERSITY  LIBRARY 


ESTABLISHED  BY  THE 
FAMILY  OF 

COLONEL  FLOWERS 


SPEECH 


OP 


GEOEGE  W.  EICHARDSON, 

OF  HANOVER, 


IN 


COMMITTEE    OF   THE   WHOLE, 


ON  THE 


KEI^ORT 


OP  THE 


COMMITTEE  ON  FEDEEAL  RELATIONS, 


IN  THE 


CONVENTION  OF  VIRGINIA, 
APRIL  A,  1861. 


RICHMOND: 

PRINTED  AT  THE  WHIG  BOOK  AND  JQB  OFPICE. 

1862. 


Cu^, 


SPEECH, 


Mr.  CHAfKMAN, — I  am  not  without  hope  that  some  member  of 
the  Conventi<Mi  will  express  or  think  in  my  behalf  the  Icindness 
uttered  by  the  worthy  gentleman  from  Petersburg,  (Mr  Branch.) 
of  my  distingnished  friend  from  Albemarle,  who  sits  on  my  right, 
(Mr.  Holcombe,)  for  whose  acconmiodation  the  former  gentle- 
man, announced  his  willingness  to  adjourn,  so  that  the  latter 
might  be  heard  when  the  Convention  wais  not  fatigued,  on  the 
ground  that  he  had  tronbled  this  body  but  little  with  speeches. 
I  have  presumed  to  speak  here  but  twice — once  less  than  ten 
minutes — advocating  the  election  of  a  friend  to  an  office  to  which 
he  was  preferred  by  the  Convention;  and  once  again — less  than 
fifteen  minutes — in  explanation  of  a  resolution  looking  to  the  mili- 
tary defence  of  the  State,  which  I  had  the  honor  to  propose. 
Though  I  haA'e  been  firm  in  my  sentiments  on  the  momentous 
matters  to  be  considered  by  Virginia  in  this  the  highest  exercise 
of  her  sovereignty,  I  confess  to  some  vacillation  as  to  whether  I 
should  speak  here  or  not.  For,  notwithstanding  the  intermina- 
ble clamors  and  fault-findings  of  the  respective  partisans  of  the 
majority  and  minority,  1  see  around  me  gentlemen  who,  from 
character,  talents  and  position,  are  the  most  distinguished  men 
of  the  State,  and  my  embarrassment  is  increased  by  the  fact  that 
J  am,  for  the  first  time,  a  representative  of  the  people  in  a  body 
like  this;  so  that  it  is  with  awe  that  I  attempt  to  address  them. 
Nor  should  I  make  the  effort  at  all  had  I  not  reason  to  believe 
that  my  constituents  desire  their  voice,  however  humble  when 
spoken  by  me,  to  be  heard  in  this  hall.  Certain  mental  pecu- 
liarities of  mine,  sir,  lead  me,  in  considering  a  subject,  to  look 
to  its  historical  surroundings.  I,  therefore,  propose  first  to  take 
a  glance  at  the  origin  of  the  Federal  Union — at  the  many  ties 
which  should  have  united  forever  in  fraternity  and  affection  the 
North  and  the  South — to  show  while  the  former  section  and  a 
foreign  power  are,  for  the  most  part,  responsible  for  slavery  here, 
they  have  sought,  with  unhallowed  hands,  to  destroy  both  the 
institution  and  those  on  whom  they  f  irced  it;  that  the  people  of 
the  North  have  rudely  and  cruelly  crushed  the  love  which  bound 
us  together,  and  fiave  cherished  and  do  cherish  towards  us  such 
feelings  as  renders  a  longer  imion  with  them  almost  hopeless. 
Proceeding  a  step  farther  in  the  argument,  and  considering  our 
responsibilities  in  connection  with  a  once  glorious  but  now  dis- 
rupted nationality,  1  shall  hold  the  position  not  only  that  our  des- 
tiny is  with  the  Southern  Confederacy,  but  that  the  best  mode 
of  re-constructing  the  Union  is  promptly  to  identify  ourselves 


4 

with  the  seceded  States.  Maintaining  this  ground,  I  shall  be 
drawn  into  a  reply  to  arguments  advanced  by  gentlemen  on  this 
floor,  who  take  a  different  view  of  the  subject,  and  having  car- 
ried oat  this  line  of  remark,  I  shall  have  completed  the  programme 
formed  in  my  mind,  and  will  cheerfully  yield  the  floor  to  gentle- 
men able  to  speak  with  more  ability  and  eloquence  than  I  can 
command. 

Eighty-four  years  ago,  Mr.  Chairman,  heralded  by  the  clash 
of  arms,  and  amid  the  shock  of  battle,  a  giant,  so  to  speak,  started 
into  life — that  giant  was  the  youthful,  but  ah-eady  magnifi- 
cent country  which  reached  from  the  ice-bound  hills  of  New 
Hampshire  to  the  warm  and  illuminated  fields  of  Georgia,  the 
renowned  and  patriotic  thirteen  sovereignties  which  had  been 
the  brightest  gem  in  the  coronet  of  power  and  dominion  of  that 
green  isle  of  the  ocean,  in  the  storied  inscriptions  of  whose 
Westminster,  we  read  with  reverential  awe,  the  merited  eulogies 
of  those  heroes,  sages  and  philanthropists,  who  illustrated  the 
land  where  once  our  fathers  dwelt.  Long  years  of  suffering  and 
of  sorrow  succeeded  the  nation's  advent,  but  there  came  at  last 
that  independence,  which  in  the  end  rewards  the  devotion  of  the 
noble,  the  chivalrous  and  the  free — and  when  the  smoke  of  the 
conflict  had  cleared  away,  when  the  clouds  of  war  rolled  back, 
and  left  spanning  the  horizon  the  rainbow  of  peace,  that  young 
land  displayed  a  moral  and  physical  grandeur  to  which  the  world 
showed  no  parallel.  Everything  seemed  to  demand  of  her  sons 
for  their  country,  and  their  whole  country,  the  tribute  of  their 
devotion  and  their  love  A  people  on  whose  every  lineament 
were  stamped  the  moral  and  mental  attributes  of  the  great  race 
from  which  they  sprang — a  federative  system  of  separate  State 
sovereignties  of  kindred  institutions  and  kindred  freedom,  which 
promised,  in  the  matchless  beauty  of  its  construction  and  opera- 
tion, to  be  typical  of  the  order  and  regularity  of  the  planetary 
system  itself — varieties  of  soil,  climate  and  productions  which 
seemed  to  have  been  ordained  by  a  kind  Providence,  that  this 
bright  temple  of  freedom  might  be  decked  with  every  luxurious 
elegance  of  soul,  of  sense,  or  of  intellect — rivers  which  rolled 
their  brilliant  tides  through  State  after  State,  as  if  to  mingle  in 
great  arteries  the  gushing  life  blood  of  these  States — majestic 
ranges  of  mountains  stretching  forth  their  giant  arms  and  uni- 
ting in  fraternal  embrace  whole  Commonwealths — washed  by  an 
ocean  whose  shores  were  indented  with  countless  harbors,  in 
which  might  safely  ride  the  navies  of  the  world — over  whose 
waves  were  wafted  the  teeming  products  of  a  virgin  soil  to 
every  clime — whence  were  brought  in  return  the  commercial 
spoils  of  distant  lands,  the  Confederate  States  of  the  Revolu- 
tion had,  besides  these  physical  bonds  uf  Union,  the  sacred 
recollections  of  a  struggle  in  which  they  stood  side  by  side 
and  shoulder  to  shoulder.     The  blood  and  the  bones  of  noble 


warriors  from  North,  South,  East  and  West,  were  mingled  at 
Long  Island  and  Camden,  Brandy  wine  and  Savannah,  Reading 
and  Guilford,  where  hngered   the  melancholy  memories  of  de- 
feat, and  at  Lexington  and  Eutaw,  Bunker's  Hill  and  Cowpens, 
Monmouth  and  King's  Mountain,  Trenton  and  Hanging  Rock, 
Princeton  and  Yorktown,  above  which  hovered  tlie  glories  of 
victory.     To  the  progress  of  a  portion  of  this  beautiful  country 
there  was  an  obstacle  which  at  first  seemed  insurmountable. 
Settled  by  Caucassians,  by  Saxons,  and  chivalrous  Normans, 
whose  genius  and  courage  blazoned  on  their  shields  the  quarter- 
ings  of  glory  and  renown  won  in  every  cabinet  and  on  every 
field  in  Europe,  and  which  fitted  them  for  similar  honors  here, 
they  found  themselves  lords  of  a  country  whose  resources  were 
to  lie  developed  in  a  climate,  and  under  a  sun  beneath  which 
their  energies,  mental  and  physical,  drooped  and  withered.     But 
the  power  which  had  guided  them  over  the  trackless  ocean  did 
not  desert  them  here.     Far  away  over  the  blue  waves  of  the  sea, 
and  beneath  the  burning  sun  of  Africa,  there  dwelt  in  the  abase- 
ment of  barbarism,  heathenism  and  cannibalism,  a  race  on  whom, 
for  the  crime  of  their  progenitor,  h;id  come  down  through  the 
shadows  of  ages  the  curse  of  the  God,  ''whose  nod  can   hush 
the  thunder  and  serene  the  skies,"  whose  throne  is  placid  amid 
the  music  of  circling  orbs,  and  glows  and  glitters  in  the  light  of 
suns  and  worlds — the  solemn  and  awful  anathema,  "cursed  be 
Canaan,  a  servant  of  servants  shall  he  be  unto  his  brethren," 
The  dread  Omnipotent  who  makes  "the  wrath  of  man  to  praise 
Him,"  and  restrains   "the  remainder  of  wrath,"  to  lift  that 
curse,  that  the  degraded  African  might  have  his  share  in  the 
atonement — as  a  part  of  the  great  scheme  which  gives  the  Re- 
deemer the  heathen  for  his  inheritance;  in  view  of  the  slow 
progress  of  light  through  that  benighted  land,  over  which  wave 
after  wave  of  moral  darkness  rolled,  brings  him  in  contact  with 
civilization   here.     But,  that  fair  and   glorious  freedom  might 
have  no  stain  on  her  escutcheon,  makes  others  than  her  sons 
the  responsible  agents  of  the  evil,  from  which  was  to  flow  in 
full  and  gushing  streams  blessings  and  benefits.     Yes,  to  the 
thousand  sins  for  which  despotism  has  to  answer  at  the  bar  of 
history  and  of  God,  is  to  be  added  the  expatriation  of  the  hea- 
then African  for  gold,  with  no  view  to  humanity  or  benevolence, 
while  the  freemen  of  our  Southern  States,  guiltless  in  the  means, 
but  partakers  of  the  merit  of  the  end,  have,  by  the  dispensation 
of  God,  been  made  the  honored  instruments  of  good  to  a  fallen 
race  in  the  very  act  of  developing  the  resources  of  their  own 
beautiful  and  blooming  land.     They  have  made  the  African  a 
happy  part  of  a  patriarchal  institution,  infused  into  his  savage 
and  gloomy  mind  the  kindlier  sympathies  and  feelings  leading 
to  contentment  and  happiness,  and  unsealing  the  word  of  God, 
pointed  him  to  the  great  sacrifice;  which;  when  he  has  faithfully 


6 

performed  his  duties  here,  offers  him  aii  inheritance  in  common 
with  his  kind  in  a  world  of  eternal  happiness.  Passing  from 
theory  to  history — from  assertion  to  tlie  logic  of  facts — inexora- 
ble truth  will  demonstrate  that  to  Great  Britain,  the  country 
which  now  so  bitterly  denounces  us  f^r  otir  domistic  institntinns, 
must  be  charged  the  existence  of  slaveiv  amongst  us.  She  es- 
tablished it  here  by  positive  enantment  of  law,  spreading  on  her 
statute  book  that  it  was  not  onlv  |)r(ilit.>ble,  but  right  t/itizens 
highest  in  rank,  individuals  and  corporations,  princes  of  the 
blood  and  even  sovereigns  participated  in  the  tratfic.  Ten  judges 
of  her  highest  courts,  including  Holt  and  Pollexfen,  declared 
negroes  to  be  merchandise,  and  she  introduced  and  continued 
the  trade  amongst  us  against  our  earnest  protest.  The  North, 
lynx-eyed  as  to  everything  which  advances  her  interest,  took  up 
and  carried  on  the  trade  with  an  avidity  which  shoAved  her  con- 
stitutional thirst  for  and  keenness  in  the  pursuit  of  gain.  Im- 
maculate Massachusetts,  as  early  as  1641,  declared  tlie  lawful- 
ness of  African  slavery  and  of  the  slave  trade.  In  the  other 
Northern  States,  slavely  was  established,  but  the  immutable 
laws  of  soil  and  climate,  which,  if  let  alone,  will  carry  into  every 
country  the  labor,  M'hether  slave  or  free,  best  adapted  to  it,  ren- 
dering the  institution  unprofitable,  these  enterprising  people  took 
their  part  in  the  trade  more  in  selling  slaves  to  the  South  than 
in  introducing  them  into  their  own  country.  Hence  they  rapidly 
disappeared  from  their  territory  into  the  Southern  States,  so  as 
to  make  emancipation  in  the  former  no  stretch  of  philanthropy. 
By  the  census  of  1790,  the  number  of  slaves  in  the  ohier  and 
more  floutishing  colonies  was  only  40,370,  while  in  the  Southern 
and  then  more  feeble  colonies,  there  were,  even  exclusive  of 
those  in  Virginia,  567,527;  Vermont  had  only  17,  Massachu- 
setts, though  slavery  never  was  abolished  there  by  statute,  none. 
New  Hampshire,  whose  statutes  were  equally  silent  on  the  sub- 
ject, 158;  Connecticut  2,759;  Pennsylvania  3,737;  New  York 
21,524;  New  Jersey  11,4'23,  while  Virginia  alone  had  293,427. 
These  figures  prove  that  in  the  Northern  States  the  institution 
was  not  worth  preserving,  but  the  last  four  having  the  largest 
numbers,  in  order  to  avoid  all  loss,  adopted  a  plan  of  prospective 
emancipation,  before  the  arrival  of  the  period  for  which  there 
was  a  wonderful  and  nearly  complete  stampede  of  slaves  to 
Southern  States  for  Southern  gold. 

To  the  influx  of  Africans,  through  the  slave  trade  laws  of 
Great  Britain,  the  history  of  the  Southern  Colonies  presented  an 
unbroken  series  of  earnest  protests.  Noble,  glorious  old  Virgi- 
nia, who  stands  in  reference  to  the  slave  trade  like  the  Chevalier 
Bayard,  ''above  fear  and  above  reproach,"  passed  no  less  than 
twenty-three  acts  to  suppress  it;  the  other  Southern  States  also 
endeavored  to  put  an  end  to  it,  but  veto  after  veto  of  royal  Go- 
vernorg  trampled  upon,  the  ardent  wishes  of"  the  people.    Not 


until  the  revolution  had  given  freedom  to  these  States  were  they 
enabled  to  end  the  traffic,  and  then ,  notwithstanding  the  mag- 
nificent vaunting  of  England  of  her  love  of  freedom  and  hatred 
of  slavery,  they  suppressed  it  twenty  years  in  advance  of  her. 
I  have  glanced  at  these  historical  facts  to  show  the  injustice,  the 
iniquity,  the  cruelty  of  tlie  attacks  on  the  South  and  her  insti- 
tutions, and  I  ask  if  the  world  can  furnish  a  parallel  to  an  out- 
rage so  atrocious.  Not  only  are  we  assailed  by  that  country 
which  forced  the  institution  upon  us,  and  which  still  retains 
bitter  recollections  of  our  lost  allegiance  and  their  defeat  by  our 
gallant  ancestors,  but  the  honest,  benevolent  and  immaculate 
saints  of  the  perjured  North,  who  sold  us  slaves  for  gold,  pro- 
claim tliat  a  sin  in  which  they  were  particeps  criyhiiiis,  is  unpar- 
donable, and  seek  to  destroy  our  institutions  and  cut  our  throats, 
because  we  will  not  surrender  these  slaves,  which  have  become 
necessary  to  our  civilization,  and  to  liberate  whom  would  be  our 
moral  and  physical  death.  No  philanthropy  commends  itself 
to  these  wicked  meddlers,  save  that  which  is  a  deadly  injury  to 
their  countrymen.  In  vast  regions  of  the  earth  millions  wear 
the  chains  of  a  servitude  to  which  our  slavery  is  freedom;  but 
the  lamb-like  hearts  of  our  pseudo  brothers  are  cold— their 
sympathies  dead  as  to  them.  To  give  their  philanthropy  spice 
and  relish,  it  must  have  the  seasoning  of  perjury — the  stimulus 
of  violated  compacts,  and  comity  with  brethren,  the  fiendish 
thirst  for  the  blood  of  noble  men,  and  the  dishonoring  of  lovely 
women.  Mr.  Chairman,  there  seems  to  be  a  disposition  on  the 
part  of  both  real  and  imaginary  wrong-doers,  to  make  others  re- 
sponsible for,  and  the  scape-goats  for  their  acts.  Many  a  misera- 
ble old  man  who  has  had,  during  a  long  life,  hundreds  of  slaves 
and  reared  a  family  to  wliom  these  slaves  have  become  a  neces- 
sity, when  tinie  has  shattered  his  health  and  weakened  his 
nerves,  is  seized  with  a  spurious  remorse,  and  in  an  evil  hour 
wills  the  liberation  of  his  slaves  and  the  immolation  of  his 
children's  birth-right.  This  folly  and  wrong  finds  many  a 
parallel  in  the,  history  of  nations.  France  introduced  slavery 
into  her  Colonies,  and  then,  by  abolishing  it,  gave  them  lo  fire 
and  sword.  So  did  Britain.  And  now  this  sauie  Britain,  having 
forced  the  institution  on  us.  seeks,  fiand  in  hand  with  the  un- 
natural North  to  act  the  same  tragedy  in  the  South.  Sir,  the 
immaculate  God  could,  in  the  sublime  benevolence  and  bound- 
less love,  which  are  the  attributes  of  divinity,  offer  up  a  sinless 
mortal  life  as  an  atonement  for  a  lost  world,  but  1  utterly  deny 
the  right  of  any  human  p^wer  to  make  a  vicarious  atonement, 
and  1  demand  that  the  North  shall  bear  the  guilt  ol'  her  own 
sins.  I  referred  in  the  beginning  to  the  great  physical  hnks  and 
the  hallowed  memories  which  should  have  bound  together  the 
North  and  the  South  in  bonds  of  fraternity  as  firm  as  the  granite 
of  the  everlasting  hills.     But  for  ''bread"  the  North  has  given 


s 

us  the  '^stones"  of  immoveable  and  incessant  oppression.  For 
"fish,"  the  serpents  of  ceaseless  agitation  and  attack.  They, 
not  we,  have  forgotten  that  the  bones  of  our  ancestors  lie  side 
by  side  with  the  bones  of  their  ancestors  at  Princeton  and  York- 
town.  They,  not  we,  have  forgotten  that  we  are  brethren,  and 
that  when  once  the  hand  "is  stained  with  brother's  blood," 
nothing  less  "than  the  waters  of  the  sweet  Heavens  can  wash 
it  white  as  snow."  Sir,  to  almost  every  conceivable  insult  and 
injury  have  we  beeil  subjected.  I  will  not  weary  the  Conven- 
tion by  reading  the  innumerable  assaults  upon  us  by  the  North. 
I  could  read  page  after  page  to  show  that  our  oft-repeated  com- 
plaints are  true.  That  from  the  press,  the  pulpit,  the  school- 
house,  conventions,  legislative  bodies,  the  masses,  whether  in 
cities  or  rural  districts,  from  the  leader  of  Senates  to  the  lowest 
cross-road  politician,  who,  like  a  former  Indiana  Senator,  plays 
steamboat  for  the  amusement  of  rowdies  and  scoundrels  at  grog 
shops,*  there  is  one  wicked,  common,  deadly  and  deep-seated 
hatred  to  the  South  and  her  institutions.  As  early  as  1790  the 
war  upon  us  began  in  the  shape  of  petitions  to  Congress  ta  in- 
terfere with  our  domestic  institutions.  These  have  been  in 
every  form — to  abolish  slavery  in  the  District  of  Columbia — in 
the  forts,  dock-yards  and  other  places,  under  the  jurisdiction  of 
the  Federal  Government — to  exclude  it  from  the  Territories,  the 
common  property  of  both  sections — to  prohibit  the  slave  trade 
between  the  States — to  abolish  it  in  the  States — and  to  dissolve 
the  Union  because  of  slavery — many  of  these  petitions  being 
couched  in  terms  of  the  grossest  insult  to  the  South  and  her  in- 
stitutions. The  platform  on  which  the  abolitionists  went  into 
the  presidential  contest  in  1840,  demanded  the  abolition  of 
slavery  in  the  District  of  Columbia — in  the  Territories — of  the 
slave  trade  between  the  States,  and  announced  an  opposition  to 
slavery  every  where,  "  to  the  full  extent  of  constitutional  power." 
In  1848,  that  portion  of  the  party  which  did  not  support  the 
Buffalo  nominees,  went  for  abolishing  slavery  in  the  States  by 
the  General  Government.  The  Buffalo  and  Utica  platforms 
themselves  (claiming  to  be  Republican,  not  abolition,)  took  the 
strongest  ground  for  what  they  call  "freedom,"  in  opposition  to 
slavery.  For  the  "relief,"  (as  they  called  it,)  of  the  Federal 
Government  from  all  responsibility  for  slavery  wherever  that 
government  had  jurisdiction.  For  the  absolute  prohibition  by 
act  of  Congress  of  slavery  in  the  Territories,  and  of  more  slave 
States;  and  they  flaunted  in  our  faces  the  inscriptions  on  their 
banner  of  "free  soil,  free  speech,  free  labor  and  free  men,"  de- 
claring slavery  to  be  "a  great  moral;  social  and  political  evil," 

*  This  dignified  feat  of  the  Senator  is  described  to  have  been  the  rapid  crawl- 
ing on  the  ground  on  ail-fours,  with  a  large  tin  vessel  on  his  back  filled  with 
water,  from  which  a  negro  by  thrusting  in  the  water  a  heated  poker,  raised  a 
great  steam. 


and  a  relic  of  barbarism."  In  1852  the  independent  Democratsf, 
(as  they  called  themselves,)  who  supported  John  P.  Hale  for  the 
presidency,  declared  that  their  organization  was  a  Union  ''of 
freedom  against  slavery" — ''  slave  Territory" — '^  slave  States" — 
and  any  legislation  for  the  reclamation  of  fugitive  slaves;  ''that 
slavery  was  a  sin  against  (iod,"  "a  crime  against  man,"  and 
that  "no  human  power  could  make  it  right."  In  1856,  the 
Republican  platform  denied  the  right  of  Congress — of  Territo- 
rial Legislatures — of  any  individual,  or  association  of  indivi- 
duals, to  give  legal  existence  to  slavery  in  any  territory  of  the 
United  States,  and  claimed  that  it  was  the  duty  of  Congress  to 
prohibit  it.  Added  to  all  this,  we  have  not  the  mere  billingsgate 
of  the  Five  Points,  and  the  fish  market  eloquence  with  which 
we  have  been  bespattered  by  strong-minded  women  and  obscure 
male  traitors,  but  countless  declarations  of  loading  n\e\\,  politi- 
cians and  divines,  that  republicanism  is  not  only  the  ally,  "  but 
the  progeny  of  abolitionism."  That  they  are  for  the  logic  of 
Sharpe's  rifles  to  oppose  slavery — "  higher  law  judges,  an  anti- 
slavery  Constitution,  an  anti-slavery  Bible,  an  anti-slavery  God." 
That  the  time  shall  come  when  the  sun  shall  not  rise  on  a  master 
or  set  cm  a  slave" — "slavery  shall  go  out  in  fire  and  blood," 
and  in  its  extinguishment  the  streets  of  our  cities  "shall  run 
blood  to  the  horses'  bridles" — shall  be  abolished  at  the  price 
"of  the  Constitution,  the  Union  and  the  country" — because  of 
its  existence  the  Union  is  "a  sham,  a  lie,  an  impostiire" — a 
"covenant  with  death,  and  an  agreement  with  hell" — "insur- 
rections are  justifiable" — "a  fugitive  slave  is  right  to  kill  his 
master  if  he  attempts  to  reclaim  him" — "servile  war  or  any- 
thing is  better  than  the  extension  of  slavery  to  the  territories" — 
"and  that  jurors  are  justified  in  violating  their  oaths  in  acquit- 
ting persons  who  effect  the  escape  of  fugitive  slaves,"  as  are 
States  in  violating  the  law  for  iheir  rendition.  Their  repeated 
legislative  resolutions  haA'e  declared  against  any  more  slave 
States.  Chase  proclaims  that  the  clause  in  the  Constitution  for 
the  rendition  of  fugitive  slaves  is  null  and  void,  and  forms  no 
part  of  an  oath  when  it  is  taken  to  support  that  instrument, 
Seward,  besides  his  higher  law  and  irrepressible  conflict  doc- 
trines, proclaims  "that  slavery  has  no  constitutional  guarantee 
which  may  not  be  released" — "its  ultimate  extinction  is  cer- 
tain." Sumner,  besides  holding  sinular  doctrines,  declares  the 
fugitive  slave  law  should  not  be  executed.  Webb  is  for  pre- 
venting the  extension  of  slavery,  sword  in  hand.  Wade  is  not 
only  in  favor  of  abolishing  it  in  the  District  of  Coliunbia  and 
excluding  it  from  the  territories,  and  everywhere,  where  the 
General  Government  has  jurisdiction,  but  declares  that  agitation 
shall  continue  so  long  as  the  foot  of  a  slave  presses  American 
soil.  To  the  same  purport  are  the  declarations  of  Wilson,  And 
the  great  splitter^  who  now  occupies  the  Presidential  chair^  wha 
2 


10 

seems  as  good  at  splitting  the  Union  as  ?ie  formerly  was  at  split- 
ting rails,  who  is  as  much  out  of  place  in  his  present  position  as 
a  child  or  a  monkey  passing  with  a  lighted  match  in  the  midst  of 
open  kegs  of  gunpoAvder,  also  proclaims  the  ''irrepressible  con- 
flict."    That  the  Federal  Government  has  the  power,  and  should 
exercise  it,  of  prohibiting  slavery  in  all  the  territories;   is  not 
even  certain  that  the  abolition  of  the  slave  trade  between  the 
States  is  unconstitutional,  and  declares  that  men  who  own  slaves 
do  not  deserve  to  be  free.     Moreover,  as  far  back  as  1S58,  there 
Avere  twenty  abolition  United  States  Senators  and  one  hundred 
abolition  Representatives,  since  that  time,  sixty-eight  members 
of  Congress  endorsed  the  work  of  Helper,  an  infamous  incen- 
diary publication,  recommending  fire  and  sword  for  the  South, 
and' the  alarming  spread  of  whose  vile  doctrines  is  shown  by 
the  boasting  flaunting  on  its  title  page  of  the  sale  of  one  hundred 
thousand  copies.     The  statutes  of  no  less  than  lifieen  States 
nullity  the  fugitive  slave  law.     Myriads  in  the  North  claim  the 
crown  of  martyrdom  for  the  thieves,  bandits  and  assassins  who, 
under  the  lead  of  John  Brown,  invaded  our  soil  and  murdered 
our  citizens.     Last,   though    not  least,   a  sectional   party   ha.s 
''seized  the  government"  with  the  avowed  purpose  of  warring 
with  its  thousand  weapons  of  patronage  and  power  on  our  insti- 
tutions.    Thus,  through  every  channel  of  communication,  speaks 
the  stolid,  relentless,  moveless  North.     Thus  are  heard  the  de- 
nunciations and  threatenings,  not  of  a  ibreign  power  without 
weight  or  influence  in  our  govenmient,  between  which  and  its 
hoped  for  victim  rolls  the  billoAvs  of  an  ocean  barrier,  but  of  a 
vast  and  powerful  column  and  cordon  of  free  States  of  eighteen 
millions  of  inhabitants,  Avhose  sutfragans  have  an  immense  ma- 
jority in  the  election  of  our  governmental  officers — whose  terri- 
tory is  in  immediate  proximity  to  our  oAvn,  spanning  and  out- 
flanking our  whole  Northern,  Northeastern  and  North-western 
frontier,  Aviiich,  before  tlie  secession  of  the  Southern  Confede- 
racy, Avere  to  the  slave  States  in  number  as  19  to  15;  in  Avhile 
population  as  eighteen  millions  to  eight  millions;  in  representa- 
tion as  188  to  114;  Avhicli  to  the  slave  States  which  now  remain 
in  the  Northern  Union,  are  naw  in  number  as  19  to  8;  in  white 
population  as  eighteen  millions  to  fiA^e  millions,  in  representation 
as  188  to  53;  which  immense  preponderance  of  Commonwealths 
and  population  is  to  be  steadily  increased  by  the  addition  of  neAV 
States,  Avliidi  is  in  possession  of  the  power  and  tlie  patronage 
of  the  government,  Avith  the  ability  and  the  will  forever  to  ex- 
clude from  it  Sontliern  men,  and  the  unlimited  power  of  taxing 
and  trampling  upon  the  hopeless  minority. 

And  in  this  gathering  of  huge  clouds,  black  as  night — this 
rolling  of  the  distant  thunder,  onu'nons  of  the  approar"h  of  the 
storm — these  shocks  of  the  etirthquake,  heralding  an  explosion 
whi  h  may  shake  to  atoms  the  pillars  of  our  social  etiificu — this 


11 

roaring  and  surging  of  the  mountain  waves  of  the  great  deep, 
by  the  breaking  up  of  whose  finnitains  we  may  at  any  moment 
be  overwhelmed,  my  dislingnished  friend  from  Angnsta.  (Mr. 
Baldwin,)  who  I  was  happy  to  see  receive  from  fair  hands  the 
orator's  wreath,  not  because  I  agree  with  him  in  sentiment,  but 
because  I  am  always  pleased  to  witness  rewards  to  intellectual 
merit;  sees  little  more  than  the  raving  of  madmen,  joined  to  the 
offerings  of  gallant  persons  to  the  toothless  old  maids  of  Yan- 
keedom — these  poor  old  creatures  who  stalk  with  eyes  dim  as 
lamps  living  on  a  short  allowance  of  oil — their  cneeks  blazing 
with  the  permanent  blush  of  the  brush — their  heads  decorated 
with  a  profane  and  alarming  eruption  of  exq^tic  of  curls,  and 
who  make  the  welkin  ring  in  his  own  facetious,  but  expressive 
language,  with  the  singing  of  "psalms  and  /wwes."  Sir,  I 
hope  my  friend  is  what  I  say,  \vith  sorrow  and  humiliation,  1  am 
not,  a  member  in  good  standing  and  fellowship  of  some  ortliodox 
Christian  Church;  for  Hear  tha  if  he  is  not  in  now,  the  scepticism 
which  sees  no  danger  to  the  South  from  Northern  aggression, 
will  keep  him  out  forever.  Knowing  the  solemn  responsibilities 
of  our  position  here,  I  feel  rather  rebuked  at  venturing  upon  an 
anecdote,  especially  a  trite  one;  but  the  gentleman  really  seems 
as  hard  of  belief  as  the  man  who,  having  been  refused  a  ])lace 
in  the  Ark,  though  the  waters  of  the  flood  were  rising  in  every 
direction  around  him,  contemptuously  told  that  distinguished 
old  navigator,  Noah,  to  get  along  with  his  old  boat,  for  he  did 
not  believe  "  there  would  be  much  of  a  shower  after  all." 

Mr.  Chairman,  a  fearful  crisis  is  upon  us — our  agricultural, 
mercantile  and  connnercial  interests  are  prostrate*-our  finances 
are  deranged — our  once  glorious  Union  is  disrupted — seven  stars 
have  left  our  federative  constellation,  and  others  threaten  to  shoot 
from  their  spheres.  Waiting  in  vain  for  sympathetic  responses 
from  the  "blue  mountains  and  monumental  sea-shore  of  Virgi- 
nia," the  Confederate  Commonwealths  have  evinced  the  pru- 
dence of  the  traveller  who  stands  on  his  guard,  as  he  hears  by 
the  wayside,  "the  warning  rattle  of  the  serpent" — of  the  West- 
ern hunter,  who  raises  his  death-dealing  lifle  when  there  is  a 
"rush  in  the  jungle,"  and  he  beholds  the  large  green  eyes  of 
the  spotted  tiger  glaring  upon  him.  The  flower-decked  fields 
of  Louisiana;  the  beautiful  savannahs  of  Georgia  and  fair  Caro- 
lina, "from  plain  to  mountain  cave,"  resound  with  the  din  of 
preparation,  and  echo  the  stern  notes  of  defiance.  The  Gulf 
States  bristle  with  bayonets — column  after  column  of  the  Hu- 
guenot and  Cavalier  chivalry  deploy  into  line,  and  the  brilliant 
casque  and  more  briUiant  eye,  the  sable  plume,  the  "dancing 
crest"  of  many  a  noble  leader,  gleam  along  the  ranks  where 
flash  the  banners  of  a  glittering  army. 

Amid  these  raging  elements,  what  should  be  the  course  of  the 
border  States  and  of  Virginia?    In  my  humble  judgment  they 


12 

should  at  once  resume  tht\^°,^^®''s  formerly  delegated  by  them  to 
the  General  Government,  ana  '"  ^o'id  phalanx  assert  their  inde- 
pendence.    The  time  when  they"  could   be    accused  of  impru- 
dence for  such  a  course  has  passed;  lieces-sit  v,  not  rashness,  is 
now  the  word.     Attempt  after  attempt  at  compr  omise  has  resulted 
in  failure,  until  longer  asking  looks  like  snpj.  plication.     States- 
man after  statesman  in  the  Senate  has  endeav  ored,  in  vain,  to 
calm  the  storm.     Proposition  after  proposition  fo  r  peace,  which, 
though  patriotically  made,  was  regarded  by  the    Southern  men 
as  in  part  a  surrender  of  their  rights,  has  been  pel  sistently  voted 
down  by  the  North.     The  voice  of  Virginia  for  pt  'ace,  so  poten- 
tial, so  successful* heretofore  with  the  nation,  has    been  scorned; 
and  having  in  vain  attempted  to  secure  the  rights   of  the  South 
by  her  separate  action,  when  she  again  speaks,  it  shcHild  be  from 
the  head  of  the  Southern  column.     Without  the   ^Confederate 
States  she  would  be  as  helpless  as  a  child.     What,  if  she  re- 
mained with  the  Northern,  or  Northern  and  middle  ConlJ^deracy, 
would   become  of  her  cherished  doctrine  of  State-righ  ts,  the 
liturgy  of  her  political  prayer  book?     How  would  she  resii.-it  un- 
equal taxation — the  plunder  of  the  public  treasury,  insults  and 
aggression,  and  the  steady  encroachments  of  a  relentless  Sv"!C- 
tional  majority  upon  her  institutions?    Every  reading  man  know's 
the  wild  theories  of  the  North  and  North- West  on  the  subject  of 
government.     Scornful  derision  is  their  only  reply  to  the  che- 
rished States-rights  doctrines,  to  the  perfection  of  which  the 
great  men  of  Virginia  have  devoted  their  lives.     Trampling  this 
hallowed  creed  in  the  dust,  they  favor  the  wildest  and  most  par- 
tial schemes  of  internal  improvement  by  the  General  Govern- 
ment.    Rejecting  both,  an  equal  distribution  of  the  public  lands 
among  the  States,  and  the  trust  by  which  they  are  held,  for  the 
common  benefit  of  all,  they  allow  them  to  be  seized  by  the 
States  where  they  are  situated;  they  hold  that  no  system  of  tax- 
ation, by  duties  on  imports,  however  excessive,  is  unequal  or 
unconstitutional;  and  advocate  dangerous  agrarian  schemes  in 
the  shape  of  homestead  bills  and  other  obnoxious  measures  for 
robbing  the  treasury  and  ruining  the  country.     If,  when  the 
South  was  a  unit,  we  were  unable  to  stem  the  tide  of  injustice 
and  oppression,  how  hopeless  will  our  condition  be  now,  with 
this  resistless  majority  of  Northern  and  North- Western  States 
against  us,  and  when  seven  of  our  sovereign  allies  have  left  the 
Confederacy?     With  these  great  political  facts  staring  me  in  the 
face,  I  am  forced  to  say  that  guarantees^  which,  for  the  sake  of 
peace,   I  would,   at  one  time,   have   accepted,   1   would  now 
consider  myself  unjust  to  my  constituents  to  touch.     Every  mo- 
ment's delay  on  the  part  of  Virginia  has  confirmed  the  wavering 
and  strengthened  the  anti-Southern  rights  party,  in  the  border 
slave  States,  while  the  Gulf  States  have  become  more  and  more 
exasperated  against  the  North  3  and  th§  hope  of  re-constructiou 


13 

grows  fainter  and  fainter.  As  the  breach  between  the  Gulf 
States  and  Js^'orthern  States  widens,  and  the  former  become  more 
determined  to  act  with  perfect  independence,  so  diminishes  our 
chance  of  having  by  our  side  our  natural  allies,  and  so  increase 
the  perils  of  Virginia  and  the  necessity  for  greater  demands  and 
guarap.cees,  and  for  the  assertion  of  her  absolute  equality  in  the 
Confederacy.  How  are  these  guarantees  to  be  obtained?  By 
the  fiat  of  Virginia  acting  singly?  The  futility  of  such  a  hope 
bas  already  been  proved  by  the  failure  of  the  Peace  Conference, 
inaugurated  by  herself  If  acting  alone,  she  is  too  weak  to 
couunand  respect  for  her  demands,  she  must  seek  more  strength. 
Where  is  that  to  be  obtained?  The  answer  is  plain:  with  the 
Southern  Confederacy.  Though  there  may  be  matters  in  which 
our  interests  may  clash  with  those  of  that  Confederacy  (which  I 
do  not  admit),  yet  it  is  impossible  that  that  clash  can  be  so  fatal 
as  that  between  the  slaveholding  interests  of  the  South  and  the 
anti-slavery  aggressions  of  the  North.  To  the  Southern  Confe- 
deracy alone  can  we  look  for  a  community  of  interest,  for  strength, 
and  for  real  sympathy  in  the  maintenance  of  that  most  sensitive 
and  vital  of  all  our  domestic  institutions,  slavery. 

We  cannot  be  sure  of  the  effeclive  cooperation  of  the  border 
Statps.  Delaware,  Maryland,  Kentucky,  Tennessee  and  North 
Carolina,  notwithstanding  the  nation  is  in  the  throes  of  revolu- 
tion, have  refused  to  call  conventions.  How  far  North  Carolina, 
Tennessee  and  Kentucky  have  been  influenced  by  the  delay  of 
Virginia  in  taking  her  position  with  the  Confederate  States,  or 
what  other  causes  have  weighed  with  them,  1  have  no  means  of 
knowing.  But  I  fear  there  is  too  much  reason  to  deplore  the 
free  soil  proclivities  of  Delaware  and  Maryland;  and  Missouri, 
on  the  '^Oth  of  last  month,  by  a  vote  of  09  to  23,  actually  refused 
to  declare  her  willingness  to  unite  with  the  South,  even  though 
the  Northern  States  refuse  to  agree  on  a  just  settlement  of  the 
slavery  question,  and  the  Union  is  dissolved  in  consequence 
thereof  Then  we  should  not  await  the  action  of  the  border 
States.  Delay  and  uncertainty  are  ruinous  to  our  interests. 
The  great  objection  to  border  State  conferences,  and  all  other 
measures  for  delay,  is  that  business  men  are  kept  in  a  state  of 
harrassing  and  ruinous  uncertainty,  as  to  where  the  State  is  to 
go  and  the  country  is  to  go — under  what  revenue  system  we 
are  to  live — as  to  what  amount  of  protection — stability  and  safety 
is  to  be  given  to  that  domestic  institution  of  ours,  which  is  the 
foundation  on  which  is  reared  the  whole  edifice  of  State  pros- 
perity and  civilization.  Not  only  do  commercial  and  manufac- 
turing men  stand  aghast  at  the  doubts  and  difficulties  of  the 
State's  future,  but  slaveholders  prepare  to  weaken  our  strength 
by  the  withdrawal  not  only  of  their  energy,  virtue  and  ability, 
but  of  millions  of  property  from  our  soil.  The  motives  which 
impel  the  latter  to  leave  the  State  are  two  foldj  first,  by  our  un- 


14 

settled  policy  they  fear  the  reduction  of  the  vahie  of  their  slaves; 
and,  secondly,  they  know  that  of  all  institutions  on  %irth  slavery 
is  the  most  sensitive,  and  the  most  dangerous  to  be  meddled 
with  by  any  but  its  friends  and  owners.  They  well  know  iliat 
the  history  of  every  outside  interference  with  the  institution  is 
written  in  blood — hence  they  desire  to  place  themselves  and  the 
institution  in  the  keeping  of  its  friends.  Even  tiiough  the  seces- 
sion of  Virginia  should  in  cons(^quence  of  her  delay  fail  to  give 
her  the  proud  leadership,  which  all  were  ance  willing  to  accord 
her,  it  would  at  least  put  her  in  a  position  where  the  slave  inte- 
rest would  be  free  from  attack  by  legislation — i)i  an  alliance 
with  Commonwealths  by  whom  she  will,  not  be  trampled  upon, 
and  will  be  freed  from  insult,  excessive  taxation  and  ceaseless 
agitation. 

We  might  have  supposed  our  enemies  to  have  prudence  if  not 
principle — shrewdness,  if  not  wisdom  and  honor;  and  that  this 
miserable  government  at  Washington,  when  straining  every 
nerve  to  keep  the  border  States  in  the  Northern  Confederacy, 
when  Virginia  was  staying  the  tide  which  threatened  to  sweep 
them  from  place  and  power,  would  have  had  the  tact,  not  to  say 
the  common  decency  to  stay  the  hand  of  oppression  and  plunder. 
So  far  from  it,  at  that  very  time. they  seek  to  prostrate  Southern 
prosperity.  For,  as  the  distinguished  gentleman  from  Halifax, 
(Mr.  Bruce,)  who  first  addressed  us  has  shown,  at  the  very  mo- 
ment this  Convention  was  discussing  the  means  of  restoring 
union  and  fraternity,  a  Black  Republican  Congress  passed,  and 
a  Black  Republican  President  signed  the  odious  Morrell  Tariff, 
more  unequal  and  oppressive  to  the  South  than  that  bill  of  abo- 
minations of  1832,  which  came  near  disrupting  the  government 
and  destroying  the  confederacy.  Go  with  the  Southern  Confe- 
deracy, sir,  and  no  such  oppression  awaits  us.  We  will  then 
rest  under  the  wise  and  statesman-like  Constitution  of  the  Con- 
federate States,  formed  by  Southern  slaveholders  for  the  benefit 
of  Southern  slaveholders.  This  is  the  conclusive  answer  to 
gentlemen  who  ask  what  we  are  to  get  by  going  to  the  Southern 
Confederacy,  and  express  doubts  as  to  the  security  of  our  rights 
and  interests  in  it.  Is  there  a  gentleman  on  this  floor  who  is 
not  perfectly  satisfied  with  that  Constitution,  who  sees  any  thing 
in  it  incompatible  with  the  interests  of  Virginia,  or  which  does 
not  better  secure  them  than  the  Constitution  under  which  we 
live.  Moreover,  the  construction  of  an  instrument  is  secondary 
in  importance  only  to  the  terms  of  the  instrument  itself.  The 
Constitution  of  the  Confisderate  States  will  be  administered  by  a 
Southern  Congress,  a  Southern  President,  with  a  Southern  Ca- 
binet, and  construed  by  Southern  Judges,  all  looking  to  the 
interest  of  Southern  slaveholders;  and  not  by  a  Northern  free 
soil  executive  and  abolition  Congress,  and  a  Supreme  Court  to 


15 

be  aholitionized  as  rapidly  as  death  shall  remove  the  remainder 
of  the  venerable  States-rights  Judges  w!io  now  grace  its  bench. 

The  distinguished  gentleman  irom  Fauquier,  (Mr.  Scott,) 
argued  that  in  ranging  herself  with  the  Southern  Confederacy, 
Virginia  would  go  as  a  mendicant,  ignorant  of  the  manner  in 
which  she  was  to  be  received.  As  a  mendicant,  sir?  Why, 
have  not  the  States  which  led  the  secession  movement,  sent 
commissioners  to  Virginia,  both  before  and  since  their  with- 
drawal, not  only  inviting  but  imploring  her  to  join  the  Southern 
Confederacy  ? 

Again,  sir,  he  has  argued  that  the  Government  would  not 
brook  our  withdrawal  and  it  would  be  equivalent  to  war,  and 
that  the  act  would  forever  alienate  the  Northern  States  from  us, 
so  that  there  conid  be  no  reconstruction  of  the  Union.  I  do  not 
see  that  the  withdrawal  of  Virginia  from  the  Confederacy,  with- 
out aggression  upon  the  Fedend  Government,  will  produce  war 
atiy  more  than  the  mere  withdrawal  of  the  Confederate  States 
has  produced  war.  I  apprehend  that  if  war  springs  up  between 
the  rival  Confederacies,  it  will  not  be  in  consequence  of  the  iso- 
lated act  of  secession,  but  in  consequence  of  some  controversy 
with  regard  to  the  foris,  and  the  collection  of  the  revenue.  And 
if  it  be  said  that  the  Government  has  up  to  this  time  stayed  its 
hostile  hand  to  keep  Virginia  with  the  JN'orthem  Confederacy  I 
answer  that  if  she  secedes,  the  same  policy  will  probably  be  pur- 
sued to  keep  in  that  Confederacy  the  remaining  border  slave 
States.  And,  with  regard  to  the  alienation  of  the  Northern 
States  from  us  by  our  alliance  with  the  Southern  Confederacy.. 
and  the  consequent  lessening  of  the  chances  of  reconstruction, 
all  I  have  to  say  is,  that  if,  after  all  the  injuries,  insults  and  in- 
dignities heaped  upon  us  by  the  Northern  people,  they  are  so 
sensitive,  so  squeamish  as  to  make  our  union  with  the  Gulf 
Slates  a  mortal  olft'nce,aU  hope  of  reconstruction  is  gone  for- 
ever. The  distinguished  gentleman,  (Mr.  Scott,)  touched  upon 
a  subject  which  has  already  been  alluded  to  more  than  ojice  on 
this  rioor.  Jtwas  started  by  the  distinguished  senior  delegate 
from  Bedfn-d,  (Mr.  (»oggin,)  andTefers  to  the  diffi'Uilty,  in  case 
of  the  secession  of  Virginia,  and  her  alliance  with  the  Southern 
Confederacy,  which  the  State  and  the  Confederacy  would  have 
in  discharging  their  rer^iprocal  obligations.  1  understood  the  ar- 
gument to" refer  in  the  beginning  to  the  difficulty  of  the  transit  of 
our  Congressional  representatives  to  Mcntgomery,  and  I  thought 
it  a  strange  position,  when  only  a  few  days  before  Commissioners 
frou)  the  seceded  States  of  Georgia,  South  Carolina  and  Missis- 
sippi had  passed,  without  molestation  and  with  welcome  through 
unseceded  States  lying  between  us  and  the  Southern  Confede- 
racy. In  the  discharge  of  these  reciprocal  duties  there  would 
be  little  difficulty  in  time  of  peace;  and  if  it  be  said  that  in  dme 
of  war  it  would  be  so  great  as  to  make  secession  for  that  reason 


16 

unwise,  I  submit  with  great  deference  that  the  argument  proves 
too  much — for  it  would  show  that  we  con  Id  not  safely  secede  the 
State,  even  if  every  effort  of  compromise  with  the  North  and 
every  proposition  proposed  in  this  body — border  State  proposi- 
tions and  all — shall  fail.  In  other  \vords  that  we  are  helpless  in 
the  grasp  of  abolitionism.  It  is  a  difficuhy  then  which,  as  we 
may  have  to  meet  it,  we  should  look  in  the  face  and  be  prepared 
for  it.  I  hope  that  it  will  be  found  more  imaginary  than  real. 
If  Virginia  should  join  the  Southern  Confederacy,  I  should  hope 
there  would  be  no  difficuhy,  in  case  of  danger,  in  marching  an 
army  from  one  to  the  other  through  the  Southern  and  friendly 
States  still  in  the  old  Union,  and  that  while  those  States  would 
resist  the  march  of  a  Federal  army,  the  spirit  of  their  people,  of 
their  institutions,  the  feeling  of  Southern  fraternity,  the  principle 
of  honor  would  prevent  their  opposing  the  march  of  Southern 
i\)Yres  from  Virginia  to  the  Confederate  States,  or  from  tiie  latter 
to  the  former.  Besides,  it  is  to  be  hoped  that  a  Southern  navy 
will  start  like  magic  into  life,  by  which  her  troops  can  be  trans- 
ported where  they  may  be  needed.  Then  let  Virginia  go  with 
her  Southern  sisters,  and  in  concert  with  them  demand  her 
rights  of  the  North.  We  have  already  sufficient  evidence  of 
the  inability  of  Virginia,  acting  singly,  to  obtain  proper  guaran- 
tees of  the  North  and  its-abohtion  government,  and  of  the  in- 
disposition of  the  North  to  accede  to  the  demands  of  a  disunited 
South  in  the  failure  of  the  Peace  Conference  inaugurated  by 
her,  of  the  Crittenden  propositions,  and  of  varioiis  other  propo- 
sitions of  peace  offered  by  Southern  men,  all  of  wtiich  were 
voted  down  and  branded  with  scorn. 

Though  we  contend  that  the  Peace  Congress  propositions 
were  a  virtual  surrender  of  Southern  rights,  and  point  to  their 
failure  in  Congress  to  show  that  the  North  is  not  willing  even  to 
give  us  a  part  of  our  rights,  the  distinguished  gentleman  from 
Augusta,  (Mr.  Baldwin,)  says  we  are  estopped  m  any  reference 
to  the  subject  because  the  Virginia  Senators,  Hunter  and  Mason, 
voted  along  with  Seward  against  the  propositions,  but  the 
answer- is  plain.  Seward  voted  against  the  report,  because  it 
gave  the  South  more  than  he  was  willing  it  should  have.  Hunter 
and  Mason  voted  against  it  because  it  gave  the  South  less  than 
its  due.  Does  any  human  being  suppose  that  Seward  voted 
against  it  because  it  gave  the  South  too  little,  or  that  the  Virginia 
Senators  opposed  it  because  it  gave  the  South  too  much?  The 
bare  statement  of  the  proposition  is  its  own  best  refutation,  and 
there  is  an  end  of  it. 

I  confess,  Mr.  Chairman,  that  my  hopes  of  a  reconstruction  of 
the  old  Union  are  slight  indeed.  1  fear  that  a  separation  of  the 
States  is  eternal,  but  1  am  convinced  that  if  there  is  any  hope  of 
reconstruction,  it  must  be  froni  the  prompt  secession  of  Virginia, 
and  her  union  with  the  Southern  Confederacy.     Of  one  thing  I 


17 

am  certain,  after  the  teiTible  ordeal  through  which  the  country 
has  been  carried  and  is  now  passing,  the  Gulf  States  will  never 
return  without  constitutional  amendments,  securing  them  tho- 
rough and  absolute  equality  whh  the  North.  It  is  vain  for  any 
man  to  tell  me  the  Union  can  be  reconstructed  without  an  utter 
abandonment  of  those  principles  founded  in  inequality,  injustice 
and  wrong,  but  which  are  the  very  existence  of  the  free  soil 
party.  That  there  will  be  such  an  abandonment,  is  almost 
hoping  against  hope;  and  almost  equally  futile  is  the  hope  that 
the  Gulf  States  will  return  on  any  terms.  But,  if  miraculously, 
almost,  the  free  soil  party,  from  a  returning  sense  of  justice, 
should  be  willing  to  accord  us  this  equality,  nothing  but  a  union 
of  Virginia  with  the  States  of  the  Southern  Confederacy  will 
bring  them  back.  My  distinguished  friend  from  Halifax,  who 
last  addressed  us,  (iVlr.  Flournoy,)  referred  to  the  proud  position 
of  Virginia.  He  told  us  in  eloquent  terms  that  at  her  command 
the  government  had  stayed  its  hostile  hand  against  the  S'luth. 
My  fieart  responded  to  every  sentence  of  his  beautiful  eulogy  on 
the  old  Commonwealtli,  for  1  am  one  of  those  who  so  reverence 
and  love  the  Old  l^ouiinion,  that  even  when  dissenting  from  Ijer 
line  of  pi  licy,  my  tongue  will  utter  nothing  in  regard  to  her, 
unless  Couched  in  the  most  humble  and  respectful  terms,  such 
as  a  dutiful  son  imyht  eui|)l  y  towards  an  ageiJ,  venerated, 
adored  mother.  If,  in  the  seiniment  «>f  my  friend,  her  p  >siiion 
was  prou.l,  noble,  gl  irious,  when  acting  singl)-,  what  would  be 
her  attitude  when,  assuining  !ier  air  leni  ani  naiiiial  leadership 
which  she  has  been  iuiploieiJ  to  take,  she  marches  at  the  head 
of  the  glorious  Southern  column.'  S.is  would  tiieu  be  tntiileJ 
to  address  the  seceded  States,  and  re,u"n>rrare  wiiii  them  in  tUe 
spirit  of  an  elder  sister — 'she  could  say  to  them,  sisters  1  have 
fell  the  house  ff  your  enemies  and  are  with  you  in  the  house  of 
•  Mirtiiiuti.v — I  ask  you  n.-t  lo  at)andon  a  single  right  or  a  s«>li- 
laiy  princi|>le  u{  hoiinr — 1  wul  re.->ist  liie  invasion  ot  either,  with 
y'.ii,  t.'  the  deaih.  I  am  pr«'p.iie  i  wit.i  you  to  l.iy  iiuwn  a  plat- 
I'T.ii,  an  iJiiuiatiim  ol  uiiiencl.M<rit.>  t"  tne  ConsUnitioii-,  givmu^ 
yi'ii  peile -t  equality  wit  i  the  i\  -rt,!  and  securing  in  all  r<'.spe  ;ts 
y<iur  lull  iighis,  ll  ihtx-  are  ileuie  I,  with  yoii  i  ig.;  re  :  n-  m,! 
Uonledera-y  Imever — nut  ii  i  n-y  i  e  a  ;.•  raeJ  to  u-,  Wili  y  ii 
n«  t  go  b>4Ck  Willi  me,  n  con^iiM  ;i  a  once  glorious  LJni'»ii,  .ukI, 
furgetiing  the  biiit-r  reci  lle.'ti;'n>  of  the  past,  rest  t^am  wiin  me 
under  uie  .>hadow  of  that  flag,  wnii-li  ha.-,  made  our  iia.ije  so  le- 
speciable,  glorious  and  ren^iWneJ  among  tiie  nations  ot  tie 
earth?  For  my  own  part,  much  as  I  have  loved  the  old  Unioii 
and  would  love  it  now,  freed  trom  oppression  and  wnng,  I 
think  we  have  no  safety  in  it  unless  these  seceded  Stale;>  reiuui. 
Having  ranged  ourselves  with  them  we  would  go  back  wnen 
they  return;  and  if  that  is  never  to  be,  then  we  should  remain 
under  the  wise  Uonstitution  of  the  Confederate  States,  with  pow- 
3 


18 

erful  allies,  and  not  be  reduced  to  the  weakness,  the  impotence 
of  being  alone.  If  all  the  slave  Stales  will  not  join  the  South- 
ern Confederacy,  I  would,  at  least,  make  it  as  strong  as  we  can 
by  the  addition  of  Virginia.  The  Northern  States  will  then  see 
the  result,  if  ihej  cannot  comprehend  the  guilt  of  their  acts, 
that  the  subjugation  of  the  South  is  hopeless;  and,  (harshly  as 
it  may  grate  on  their  haughty  and  gnilty  pride,)  that  unless  the 
war  on  our  institutions  is  ended,  and  our  equality  admitted 
every  where,  and  every  where  around  our  property  as  around 
theirs  is  thrown  the  protecting  aegis  of  the  law,  the  Union  is 
gone  forever.  The  eternal  principles  enunciated  in  three  short 
words  may  re-construct  the  Union;  they  are  truth,  justice,  equa- 
lity— none  other  ever  will.  Then,  sir,  I  favor  the  prompt  seces- 
sion of  Virginia.  This  brings  me  to  an  examination  of  the  re- 
port of  the  Committee  on  Federal  Relations,  which  I  shall  make 
with  great  respect  and  regard  for  the  gentlemen  who  compose 
the  Committee.  Looking,  as  it  does,  to  other  modes  of  redress, 
than  the  prompt  resumption  by  Virginia  of  her  delegated  powers, 
I  cannot  give  it  my  support— nor  could  I  approve  it,  even  if  I 
was  willing  to  live  in  the  Northern  Confederacy,  without  the 
Confederate  States  of  the  South.  There  are  objections  to  the 
2d  resolution  of  the  first  partial  report  of  the  Committee,  but  T 
pass  them  by  to  the  4th  resolution,  the  latter  part  of  which  says: 

"If  the  equal  admission  of  slave  labor  and  free  labor  into  any 
Territory,  excites  unfriendly  conflict  between  the  systems,  a  fair 
partition  of  the  Territories  ought  to  be  made  between  them,  and 
each  system  ought  to  be  protected  within  the  limits  assigned  to 
it,  by  the  laws  necessary  for  its  proper  development." 

Sir,  that  resolution  defers  to  what,  in  my  opinion,  is  an  un- 
justifiable, illegal  and  abominable  prejudice  of  the  North  against 
the  institutions  of  the  South.  It  holds  out  the  idea  that  there  is 
a  moral  degradation  attached  to  those  institutions,  and  that 
Northern  men  are  contaminated  in  being  brought  in  contact  with 
them,  and  therefore  in  the  very  teeth  of  the  decision  of  the  Su- 
preme Court,  Southern  men  shall  have  no  protection  for  their 
property  in  one-half  of  the  Territory,  while  the  property  of 
Northern  men  is  protected  in  all.  1  never  will,  willingly,  give 
my  vote  for  any  resolution  which  sanctions  such  a  principle. 

The  time  has  come  when,  if  we  are  to  live  with  these  Northern 
people,  they  must  give  up  the  idea  that  we  are  a  degraded  class. 
They  must  admit  that  this  busy-body  intermeddling  of  theirs, 
in  which  they  undertake  to  brand  us  and  our  ancestors  with 
being  an  inierior  rare,  in  a  moral  point  of  view,  shall  cease. 
They  must  cease  to  insult  us  by  telling  us  that  our  property  in 
slaves  is  a  claim  so  infamous^  so  polluting,  as  to  be  put  under 
the  ban  of  Northern  morality  and  excluded  from  its  constitu- 
tional right  to  protection  in  the  Territories,  or  there  never  can  be 
jeace  between  us,  and  the  sooner  we  separate  the  better. 


19 

The  distinguished  gentleman  from  Augusta,  (Mr.  Baldwin,) 
illustrated  his  views  in  favor  of  a  division  of  Territory,  and  the 
exclusion  of  slavery  from  one-half,  by  this  example:  Suppose, 
said  he,  a  Northern  man  moved  into  a  territory  belonging  to  the 
United  States,  he  would  have  what  he,  (Mr.  BaKJwin,)  termed 
to  be  a  v^erj  natural  prejudice,  but  what  I  conceive  to  be  a  most 
outrageous  one,  against  the  institution  of  slavery;  he  might 
consider  that  there  was  something  degrading  in  slavery,  and 
therefore  be  unwilling  that  his  family  should  live  in  a  commu- 
nity where  such  an  institution  was  tolerated.  Well,  sir,  what  is 
the  meaning  of  that?  The  plain  English  of  it  is,  you  gentlemen 
of  Virginia,  South  Carolina,  Georgia,  Florida,  Lonisiana  and 
Texas,  and  the  other  Southern  States,  hold  an  institution  which 
is  enervating  and  degrading,  contrary  to  the  spirit  of  the  age,  to 
freedom,  chivalry,  honor,  justice  and  right. 

Now,  sir,  is  not  that  an  impertinent  and  most  unjustifiable 
stigma  upon  our  institutions,  our  social  system.  ^' Look  upon 
this  picture  and  then  upon  that." 

Suppose  a  Southern  man  chooses  to  go  there  and  to  say,  "I 
don't  like  this  system  by  which  boys  aire  kept  all  day  long  learn- 
ing tricks  of  Yankeedom,  in  making  wooden  nutmegs  and 
swindling  clocks,  which  are  '^no  go,"  without  any  opportunity 
of  cultivation  or  refinement.  I  do  not  intend  that  this  Territory, 
to  which  I  have  brought  my  children,  shall  be  without  that  pe- 
culiar institution  to  which  the  South  owes  so  much  of  her  civili- 
zation— virtue,  refinement  and  chivalry,  I  demand  that  the 
Northern  men  be  excluded  and  that  the  Southern  institution  be 
planted  here." 

Now,  sir,  would  it  not  be  just  as  fair  and  right  for  him  to  ex- 
clude the  Yankee;  as  for  the  Yankee  to  exclude  him?  Both 
being  citizens  of  a  free  country,  I  say,  in  the  language  of  the 
Supreme  Court,  "that  the  territory  is  acquired  for  their  equal 
and  common  benefit,  and,  if  open  to  any,  it  must  be  open  to  all 
upon  equal  and  the  same  terms,"  and,  that  the  Constitution,  re- 
cognizing slaves  as  property,  and  pledging  the  Federal  Govern- 
ment to  protect  it,  is  bound  to  redeem  that  pledge  as  to  the 
Southern  man's  slaves,  as  well  as  to  the  Northern  man's  clocks 
or  nutmegs.  If  Southern  men  go  into  the  territory  with  their 
slaves  in  sufficient  numbers  to  make  it  a  slave  State,  then  it 
ought  to  be  a  slave  State.  If  Northern  men  have  the  ability  to 
exclude  the  system,  not  by  Emigrant  Aid  Societies  and  Sharp's 
rifles,  but  by  superior  industry  in  emigration,  and  consequently 
by  suLperior  numbers,  let  them  exclude  it,  and  let  the  matter  be 
determined  when  a  State  Constitution  is  formed  by  a  Conven- 
tion of  trie  people  of  the  territory  according  to  the  true  States- 
rights  doctrine.     So  much  as  to  that  resolution,  sir. 

Again,  sir,  there  is  the  8th  resolution,  which  acknowledges 
the  right  of  States  to  withdraw  from  the  Federal  Government, 


20 

and  is  so  far  right,  and  which  says  that,  the  people  of  Virginia 
"will  nfver  consent  that  the  Federal  power,  which  is  in  part 
their  p "wer,  shall  he  exercised  for  the  purpose  of  suhjugating 
the  people  of  such  States  to  the  Federal  authority."  The  ob- 
jection to  that  resohition  is  that  it  is  not  stnnig  enough.  It  does 
not  re-^  gni/.o  thefaft  that  Virginia  n^t  i  nly  ouyht  not  to  consent 
th^it  the  Fciloral  pow^r  sliall  In'  excited  f  >r  the  purpose  of  sub- 
inuf'itiiiij  t!ie  pe'>ple  of  t'le  s(""e(ied  States.  hi,i  that  she  oui^ht  to 
P'sist  t'le  snhiiignti'Mi  <'f  those  St.iifs  with  all  th  'inaterial  power 
at  her  '^oniiii;  n  I,  fir  the  simple  reisoii  that  if  the  se^'eded  States 
are  subjngaied,  we  will  fall  an  easy  prey  to  the  coininon  eneiiy, 
the  North. 

Bill,  sir,  ilie  nnvst  extraordinary  resolution  of  all  is  the  ele- 
venth, which, after  so  ne  prcli  niiiiry  senten'^e-!,  goes  on  ro  siy — 
'' Virginia,  therefore,  recpie^^is  fhe  pe">ple  of  the  severil  States 
either  by  the  popular  vote,  f>r  in  (Conventions  similar  to  her  own, 
to  resp  'ud,  at  their  earliest  conveiiien'^e,  to  the  positions  assumed 
in  the  foregoing  resolutions,  and  the  proposed  ametidmonts  to 
the  Constitution  of  the  United  States  hereunto  appended." 

Well,  now  sir,  that  gives  the  Northern  people  of  this  Con- 
federaf^y  a  corfc  blanche  to  delay  this  matter  if  they  please  to  all 
eternity.  '^Fhere  is  no  compulsion  upon  thetn  even  to  call  Con- 
ventions. They  have  under  this  resolution  an  absolute  un- 
linnted  right  to  respond  to  the  action  of  Virgiiiia  by  their  popu- 
lar vote.  Now,  sir,  let  ns  see  how  that  will  work.  I  take  it 
every  body  knows  that  the  mere  popular  vote  amounts  to  no- 
thing— that  all  the  people  can  do  by  this  popular  vole  is  to  in- 
fluence those  who,  as  their  representatives,  are  bound  to  carry  it 
out  as  an  indication  of  the  will  of  the  constituent  body.     * 

Now,  mark  you,  the  redress  sought  for  the  South  is  to  be  ef- 
fected by  amendments  to  the  Constitution.  Well,  how  is  the 
Constitution  to  be  amended?  The  only  two  modes  by  which  it 
can  be  done  are  set  forth  in  its  5th  article.  One  is  that  Con- 
grcvss  by  a  two-thirds  vote  shall  propose  amendments,  which, 
wher)  ratified  by  three-f)urths  of  the  States,  by  their  Legisla- 
tures, or  Conventions,  shall  become  parts  of  the  Constitution. 
The  other  is,  by  two-thirds  of  the  States,  by  their  Legislatures, 
uniting  in  the  call  to  Congress  for  a  National  Convention;  and 
the  action  of  that  Convention  is  also  to  be  ratified  by  three- 
fourths  of  the  States,  by  their  Legislatures,  or  in  Conventions, 
before  it  becomes  valid.  Well,  sir,  under  this  resolution  the  peo- 
ple are  to  respond.  The  popular  will  is  to  be  brought  to  bear  on 
Congress,  so  that  by  a  two-thirds  vote  of  both  houses  it  will  pro- 
pose the  desired  amendments'  to  the  Constitution,  or  upon  the 
Legislatures  of  two-thirds  of  the  several  States,  inducing  them 
to  apply  to  Congress  to  call  a  National  Convention  for  proposing 
amendments,  which  in  either  case  shall  become  parts  of  the 
Constitution,  when  ratified  by  three-fourths  of  the  seveisil  States, 


21 

The  popular  voice  then  to  be  of  any  avail  must  be  brought  to 
bear  upon  Congress  or  the  Legislatures — then  again  upon  the 
Legislatures  or  Conventions,  as  the  case  may  he. 

Do  not  gentlemen  see  that  this  is  a  round  about  process  that 
will  be  interminable?  "  By  the  popular  vote" — when?  where? 
How  expressed  ?  how  arrived  at?  By  whom  demanded?  Popn- 
1  ir  vote  in  the  election  of  local  officers,  members  of  the  Legisla- 
tures, Judges,  Cot)gressmen,  or  President  and  Vice  President? 
At  which  of  these  elections  is  this  popular  vote  to  be  expressed? 
Under  whose  direction?  Whose  fiat  is  to  be  had  in  reference  to 
the  constitutional  amendments  proposed  hy  this  Convention? 
Sir,  it  is  made  the  business  of  nobody,  and  they  tuay  put  off 
this  response  to  all  elernity;  for,  mark  yon,  they  have  the  alter- 
native of  ignoring  everything  else  except  a  direct  popular  vote. 
Sir,  we  hear  of  some  very  remarkable  names  among  these  long, 
lank,  lantern-jawed  Puritans  of  the  North,  which,  whether  they 
have  any  real  existence  or  not,  are  made  sufficiently  classic  by 
the  genius  of  Irving.  If  I  recollect  aright,  he  speaks  in  that 
delighthil  emb<.(jiment  of  wit  and  humor,  Knickerbocker,  of 
certain  selectmen  of  Yankeedom,  rejoicing  in  the  musical  titles 
of  ''Preserved  Fish,  Habakkuk  Nutter,  Return  Strong,  and  De- 
termined Cock."  Very  similar  to  the  names  of  these  same 
Puritans  in  Cromwell's  army  and  Parliament,  such  as  ''Praise- 
God  Barebones,"  "General  Cry-aloud  and-spare  not,"  "Colo- 
nel Fight-the-good  fight,"  and  "Captain  Sniite-them-hip-and- 
thigh."  Well,  sir,  the  actual  workingof  this  proposition  would 
be  to  request  the  people,  to  request  Congress,  to  request  the  Le- 
gislature, to  request  Conventions,  to  respond  to  the  action  of 
Virginia.  Very  much  like  requesting  Preserved  Fish,  to  request 
Habakkuk  Nutter,  to  request  Return  Strong,  to  request  Deter- 
mined Cock,  to  request  General  Cryalond-and-spare-not,  to  re- 
quest Colonel  Fight-the-good  fight,  to  request  Captain  Smite- 
them-hip  and-thigh,  to  request  Praise-God  Barebcmes  to  do  the 
South  justice.  And  if  they  do  not  do  it  some  time  between 
now  and  the  day  of  judgment,  we  will  play  the  very  old  Harry 
with  them.     [Laughter.] 

It  seems  to  me,  sir,  that  the  South  will  get  what  she  wants  under 
this  process  when  the  archangel  Gabriel  blows  his  trump  and 
frightens  this  crop-eared  abolition  crew  into  honest  dealing  with 
us,  and  not  before.  As  well  might  Prince  Rupert  and  the  Royal 
Charles  have  asked  their  rights  of  the  barebones  Parliament. 

The  twelfth  resolution  says  that  the  people  of  Virginia  will 
wait  any  reasonable  time. 

Now,  sir,  I  am  utterly  opposed  to  any  such  indefinite  language 
as  that,  and,  giving  these  men,  who  have  always  trifled  with 
our  rights,  the  liberty  to  wait  as  long  as  they  please.  Let  us  in- 
form them  what  we  mean  by  a  reasonable  time — that  if  they  do 


22 

not  accede  to  our  requests  by  a  certain  period,  we  will  dissolve 
our  connexion  with  them. 

The  14th  resolution  proposes  a  Border  State  Conference,  and 
is  objectionable  because  of  the  delay  which  it  involves. 

Then  comes  the  2d  report  of  the  Committee. 

The  first  section  says,  that  involuntary  servitude  is  prohibited 
North  of  36  degress  30  minutes,  and  that  South  of  36  degrees 
30  minutes  it  is  not  prohibited.  Well,  now,  Mr.  Chairman, 
that  is  securing  the  Northern  share  to  the  labor  of  the  North, 
and  faihiig  to  secure  the  Southern  share  to  the  labor  of  the 
South.  The  Supreme  Court  has  decided  in  the  Dred  Scott  case 
that  slavery  is  entitled  to  protection  everywhere  in  the  territories. 
Now,  if  we  are  to  surrender  a  part  of  our  rights  under  that  de- 
cision, and  to  give  to  the  North  one-half  of  the  territories,  when 
the  law  adjudges  us  equal  rights  in  all,  and  North  of  36  degrees 
30  minutes  slavery  is  prohibited,  in  God's  name.  South  of  that 
line  let  it  be  protected.  Let  us  not  be  satisfied  with  a  mere 
declaration  that  it  is  not  to  be  prohibited. 

Then,  there  is  the  fifth  section,  which  my  friend  from  Rich- 
mond, who  first  addressed  us,  (Mr.  Randolph,)  proved  conclu- 
sively, looks  strongly  in  its  terms,  (Avhatever  may  be  its  inten- 
tion,) to  a  prohibition  of  the  introduction  of  slaves  to  this  State 
from  the  Southern  Confederacy. 

Then  comes  the  sixth  section,  in  which  it  is  said  that  if  the 
reclamation  of  a  fugitive  slave  is  prevented,  by  intimidation  of, 
or  violence  against  a  Marshal,  he  shall  be  paid  for  out  of  the 
Treasury  of  the  United  States;  thus  saddlmg  the  South  with 
one-half  the  burthen  of  paying  for  her  stolen  property.  The 
distinguished  gentleman  from  Prince  George,  (Mr.  Rives,)  who 
addressed  the  Convention  the  other  evening,  made  an  argument 
upon  the  subject,  which  seems  to  have  brought  down  the  House, 
but  which  struck  me  as  a  most  remarkable  one.  He  reduced 
the  subject  to  mills  in  his  calculation,  and,  with  great  respect,  I 
thought  the  argument  as  small  as  the  illustration.  He  went  into 
a  very  interesting  recital  of  a  Southern  mat)  going  North  and 
bringing  back,  !iot  his  fugitive  slave,  but  $1,000  from  the  pub- 
lic treasury,  in  his  place,  and  then  being  laughed  at  by  his  wife 
when,  on  counting  the  cost,  it  was  f)und  to  be  only  two  mills. 
In  the  first  plaice,  it  seems  to  me  a  very  extraordinary  thing, 
when  a  great  principle  is  at  stake,  to  measure  it  by  the  mere 
matter  of  dollars  and  cents.  When  our  ancestors  resisted  the 
stamp  act,  was  there  any  calculation  as  to  the  number  of  cents 
each  man  would  have  to  pay?  No,  sir.  It  was  the  principle — 
the  violation  of  their  rights — that  they  resisted,  without  stopping 
to  inquire  whether  it  would  cost  them  a  copper  ar  not.  Tfius  it 
should  always  be  with  nations  in  establishing  the  institutions 
under  which  they  are  to  live.     Bat^  Mr.  Chairman,  the  jirgu- 


23 

ment  is  a  mistaken  one  as  a  matter  of  fart.  If  one  or  two  slaves 
only  are  lost,  then  the  cost  will  be  small.  But,  suppose,  unrler 
this  process  by  whii^i  the  United  States  undertukes  to  pay  for 
all  the  stampeded  slaves,  thousands  of  them  are  l<K'?t  in  a  year, 
the  cost  would  be  a  more  serious  matter  than  the  gentleman  sup- 
poses. Added  to  the  outrage  and  wrong — in  the  violation  of 
our  rights,  of  comity  and  fiaiernity — a  premium  would  be  offered 
to  these  Abolitionists  to  run  off  our  slaves  to  be  paid  for  out  of 
the  Treasury  of  tfie  ITnited  States. 

Great  complaints  have  been  made  of  the  so-called  rashness  of 
these  Cotton  States,  and  of  their  failure  to  act  in  concert  wnh 
the  other  slave  States.  Mr.  Chairman,  statesmen  have  to  deal 
with  questions  practically.  There  is  no  propriety  in  standing 
upon  stilts.  In  matters  of  individual  dealing,  when  A  and  B 
meet  each  other  upon  the  field  of  honor,  there  inay  be  as  much 
disj^lay  of  chivalry  as  suits  the  parties — either  may  even  go  as 
far  as  a  distinguished  gentleman  once  did  when  he  pointed  out 
the  white  vest  of  his  adversary,  below  a  black  coat,  as  present- 
ing too  fair  a  mark  in  the  conflict;  but,  in  a  representative  ca- 
pacity, we  have  no  right  to  be  governed  by  such  nice  points  of 
etiquette.  Sir,  we  have  the  interests  of  our  constituents  and  of 
our  Country  in  our  keeping,  and  the  question  is  not  whether  the 
Southern  States  have  acted  with  perfect  prudence  and  courtesy, 
but  whether,  under  the  facts  as  tliey  exist,  the  interests  of  the 
State  is  with  the  Northern  or  with  the  Southern  Confederacy. 
And,  it  seems  to  me,  that  the  imputation  of  rashness  or  want  of 
courtesy  at  all,  to  the  Southern  Confederacy,  is  rather  illiberal, 
in  view  of  their  invitation  to  us,  both  before  and  since  their  se- 
cession, to  cooperate  with  them. 

Equally  illiberal  seems  to  me  to  be  the  complaint,  that  they 
have  endeavored  to  coerce  and  drag  us  out  of  the  Union.  We 
must  admit  their  sovereignty,  or  abandon  our  own,  and  sove- 
reignty carries  with  it  the  right  to  secede. 

ISow,  does  a  State,  when  she  thinks  her  safety  and  honor  re- 
quire her  to  withdraw  from  the  Confederacy,  coerce  States  that 
do  not  withdraw?  She  uses  no  force  upon  them.  She  merely 
exercises  her  own  constitutional  rights — her  own  attribute  of 
sovereignty.  If  you  and  I,  sir,  were  settled  on  the  Western 
frontier,  in  a  perilous  district,  surrounded  by  savages  or  robbers, 
and  if  you,  after  having  remonstrated  with  me  time  and  again 
about  the  danger  of  remaining,  and  notified  me  that  if  I  did  not 
leave  the  place  with  you,  you  would  quit  it  by  yourself,  went 
away,  would  I  be  justified  in  saying  that  you  insult<^d  and  co- 
erced me?  And  yet  I  might  as  well  say  that,  as  that  the  seced- 
ing States  have  coerced  and  insulted  us,  or  disparaged  us  in  any 
way,  by  withdrawing  fro(n  the  Confederacy,  after  having  warned 
us  they  would  do  so,  and  having  invited  us  to  go  along  with 
them.     The  coercion  which  a  man  exercises  on  another  bv  the 


24 

assertion  of  his  unquestioned  rights,  is  a  very  different  sort  of 
coercion  from  that  of  wrongful  force;  if  not,  every  industrious 
man  may  be  said,  by  force  of  example,  wrongfully  to  coerce 
every  lazy  man  in  his  neighborhood  to  be  energetic;  and,  by  a 
like  argumentative  fallacy,  the  charge  of  coercion  may  be  made 
by  every  bad  man  against  every  good  man,  by  every  slow  man 
against  every  prompt  man,  who,  by  example,  keeps  up  so  high 
a  standard  of  action  and  morality  in  his  conimnnity  as  to  brand 
a  stigma  on  a  less  elev^ated  standard.  One  cannot  be  rightfully 
complained  of  for  exercising  his  unahenable  rights,  merely  be- 
cause thereby  another  is  left  in  an  unsafe  position. 

I  listened,  sir,  with  great  pleasure  to  your  (Mr.  Montague's) 
argument  (Ui  the  right  of  secession.  I  do  not  think  it  necessary 
for  me  to  argue  that  subject — first,  because  you  have  discussed 
it  ably;  and,  secondly,  because  I  do  not  consider  it  a  practical 
question.  This  natter  of  secessiim  lies  in  a  nutshell,  and  can 
be  disposed  of  practically,  in  a  few  sentences  just  as  well  as  in 
a  whole  volume.  1  have  nut  heard  any  gentleman  upon  this 
floor  deny  iho  right  of  revolution.  Every  one  who  has  spoken 
here  admits  that  if  the  oppressions  and  wrongs  of  a  people  are 
intolerable,  they  have  that  right.  The  practical  question,  then, 
is,  do  our  wrongs  justify  resistance?  If  not,  we  fiave  not  the 
moral  right  of  secession,  though  the  techni<  al  right  ijere  "  no- 
minated in  the  bond,"  written  in  the  Constitution.  The  aim  of 
my  aigument  has  been  to  show  that  our  oppressions  do  give  us 
the  right  of  resistance — in  other  words,  of  revolution.  ''J^'hat 
we  have  not  exercised  it,  is  because  we  chose  not  to  do  so.  We 
have  suffered,  n^t  consented  to  our  wmngs.  What,  then,  is  the 
right  of  revi'lntion?  It  is  the  right  of  an  oppressed  pnofjle, 
even  in  unorganized  bodies,  to  resist  the  Government,  if  un- 
organized Dodies,  in  the  existing  state  of  things,  have  the  right 
of  resistance,  a /o/^iorj,  and  as  a  conclusion  of  both  logic  and 
common  sense,  organized  and  sovereign  Comiiionwealtiis,  Iree 
from  anarchy,  and  with  settled  institutions,  have  the  saine  right. 

It  has  been  said,  sir,  that  the  South  has  submitted  to,  and 
sanf'tioned  all  the  aggressions  of  the  North.  I  think  thai  argu- 
ment has  been  well  nigh  anmhilaied,  first  by  my  distinguished 
friend  from  (Jharles  Ciiy,  (Mr.  Tyler,)  and  next  by  the  gentle- 
man who  now  f)resides  over  this  committee,  (Mr.  Montague.) 
But  even  suppose  it  were  so,  does  anybody  deny  that  ihese  ag- 
gressions have  been  grievous  wrongs?  1(  they  have  been  snlS- 
mitted  to  for  the  sake  of  peace,  does  that  prove  that  they  ought 
to  be  endured  lor  ever?  So  fir  from  being  an  argument  to  be 
used  against  us,  it  is  one  of  the  strongest  to  justify  our  present 
resistance. 

The  eloquent  gentleman  from  Kanawha,  (Mr.  Summers,)  told 
us  that  he  did  not  despair  of  the  Republic,  and  argued  to  show 
that  we  would  get  our  rights  from  the  North;  that  all  the  phases 


ilo 


of  the  argument  in  favror  of  si  .ver^,  iir.l.M>^,  ^^^^^  I^'^.''"*"'  ^'^''' 
ment,  nnd   its  .-tfeUs—rnoral,  social,   p  .|iti';.;'   ^"^J  ?"'■  '^'"f^"^ 
upon  the  country,  were  belter  nnderstoud  at  the    '^""'*  ^''^"  ^^ 
be, ore.  <  ,  .      , 

And  the  gentleman  from  Augusta,  (Mr.  Baldwin,)  to"  Ju'*! 
there  were  at  this  time  more  pmslavery  men  ill  the  iNo,  .,  !. 
there  were  ton  years  ng(^  in  the  whole  world.  Now,  si  \  i 
answer  to  all  tliis  is,  that  it  is  idle  to  talk  of  the  great  nuinbt 
pro-slavery  men  there,  when  they  are  out-voted  in  every  ele. 
tion,  and  when,  in  their  hails  of  legislation,  they  are  defeated  in 
every  measure  looking  to  Southern  rights,  and  utterly  powerleSvS 
to  stay  the  vandal  tide  of  sectionalism.  While  the  distinguished 
gentleman  from  Kanawha  is  arguing  to  show  the  advancing  en- 
lightenment of  the  Northern  mind  on  the  subject  of  our  domes- 
tic institution,  the  logic  of  facts  and  figures,  as  State  after  State 
increases  her  abolition  majority,  is  utterly  demolishing  his  beau- 
tiful theory.  What  use  do  the  Northern  people  make  of  their 
increased  knowledge?  Are  they  any  better  for  understanding 
the  arguments  by  which  the  able  and  eloquent  statesmen  and 
divines  of  all  sections  have  demonstrated  that  slavery  is  riglit, 
morally,  socially  and  politically?  that  in  their  assaults  on  the  in- 
stitution they  are  invading  our  rights  and  trampling  the  Consti- 
tution in  the  dust?  No,  sir;  their  aggressions  advance  with 
their  increase  of  light,  in  a  sort  of  geometrical  progression,  until 
they  threaten  to  overwhelm  the  South  and  destroy  her  institu- 
tions. This  is  the  way  in  which  they  respond  to  the  argument. 
In  1840,  the  Abilitionists  cast  7,0lJ0  votes.  By  1844,  they 
showed  that  they  had  received  great  light  upon  the  subject  and 
were  disposed  to  do  perfect  justice  to  the  South,  by  increasing 
the  vote  of  7,000  up  to  62,140.  In  1848,  they  show  that  they 
are  still  further  enlightened,  still  more  benevolent,  by  increasing 
the  last  vote  to  100,000.  In  1852,  they  exhibit  a  still  farther 
perception  of  our  rights  by  polling  157,196  votes;  and  in  185G, 
by  polling  341,812  votes;  in  1860,  by  an  overwhelming  number 
of  votes,  they  possess  themselves  of  the  Government  and  bring 
all  its  patronage  and  power  to  bear  against  our  institutions. 

But  it  has  been  repeatedly  argued  here,  that  for  all  these 
things,  the  Federal  Government  is  not  responsible;  that  it  has 
made  no  aggression  on  the  w^onth;  has  taken  no  part  in  the  pas- 
sage of  personal  liberty  bills,  and  has  reclaimed  some  fugitive 
slaves,  Sir,  I  think  it  has  been  shown  you,  clearly  and  conclu- 
sively, that  the  Federal  Government  has  trespassed  upon  the 
rights  of  the  South  by  legislation.  Thousands  upon  thousands 
of  fugitive  slaves  have  never  been  reclaimed.  And,  further,  the 
argument  resolves  itself  into  this:  The  Federal  Government  has 
or  has  not  power  to  secure  the  recapture  of  fugitive  slaves.  If 
it  has  the  power,  it  has  been  faithless,  because,  in  countless  in- 
stances, it  has  not  exercised  it;  if  it  has  not  the  power,  it  is  im- 
4 


potent,  and  powerless  to  protect  us ;  in  either  case  the  result  is 
the  same,  and  the  Government,  in  default  of  a  change  for  the 
better,  is  a  nuisance,  and  ought  to  be  abated. 

Sir,  who  can  count  tlie  number  of  slaves  which  have  not  been 
reclaimed?  Look  at  the  report  of  the  committee  appointed  by 
the  General  Assembly  of  Virginia,  to  investigate  the  Harper's 
Ferry  invasion.  It  shows  the  escape  of  numerous  fugitive 
slaves,  and,  in  some  cases,  the  murder  of  their  masters  endea- 
voring to  reclaim  them.  The  reclamation  of  the  fugitive  An- 
thony Burns,  under  one  of  the  late  administrations,  required  the 
entire  military  organization  of  a  State,  with  a  large  force  of  the 
Federal  troops;  and  though  the  slave  was  worth  only  some  $700 
or  $800,  he  cost  the  treasury  of  the  United  States  upwards  of 
$100,000.  Do  you  tell  me,  then,  that  this  is  a  Government  of 
which  the  South  has  no  right  to  complain,  and  which  secures 
protection  to  the  South?  Sir,  if  this  is  protection,  God  save  us 
from  injustice  and  wrong! 

I  have  been  struck,  sir,  with  the  many  attempts  and  ingenious 
arguments  which  have  been  made  upon  this  floor  to  apologize 
for  the  North;  to  underrate  the  enormity  of  Northern  aggressions 
upon  us;  to  prove  that  these  Northern  people  are — what  they 
are  not — just  and  true  to  their  obligations  to  the  South.     The 
gentleman  from  Prince  George  (Mr.  Rives,)  read  you  the  amounts 
of  subscriptions  in  Northern  cities  to  the  towns  of  Norfolk  and 
Portsmouth  during  the  prevalence  of  yellow  fever  a  few  years 
ago.     Well,  sir,  what  does  that  show?     Does  it  show  anything 
but  what  everybody  knows  and  what  we  all  are  willing  to  acknow- 
ledge, that  there  are  some  noble  spirits  and  generous  people  in 
the  North?     Sir,  when  the  British  government  was  pushing  our 
ancestors  to  the  wall,  depriving  them  of  their  rights  and  liber- 
ties, and  driving  them  to  revolution,  how  many  generous  spirits, 
private  individuals  and  public  orators  were  there  in  the  mother 
country  who  protested  against  the  whole  system  of  o{)pression? 
But,  though  grateful   for  this  sympathy,  our  noble  ibrefaihers 
considered  it  no  reason  for  submitting  to  oppression  and  wrong. 
Again,  sir,  it  is  argued  that  the  claim  of  the  South  to  equality 
of  rights  in  the  Territories  is  a  mere  abstraction,  that  slavery 
cannot  and  will  not  go  into  them.     H  this  be  so,  it  is  a  wanton 
exercise  of  power  on  the  part  of  this  Nortliern  majority  to  ex- 
clude the  Southern  people  from  an  equal  right  to  carry  their  pro- 
perty into  the  Teriitories.     But  the  truth  is,  it  is  not  an  abstrac- 
tion.    No  wonder  that  slavcny  does  not  go  into  the  Territories 
when  the  moment  it  enters  it  is  met  there  by  Emigrant  Aid  So- 
cieties and  Sharp's  rifles?    Though  Southern  men  could  got  the 
most  fertile  lands  at  the  lowest  price,  they  dare  not  carry  slavery 
into  the  territory  where  it  is  so  insecure. 

The  eloquent   gentleman   from   Kanawha,   (Mr.  Summers,) 
asked  us  if  we  were  willing  to  make  the  Western  section  of  the 


.27  .;      "   ' 

State  the  outside  row  of  the  Southern  Confederacy — if  we  were 
willing  to  bring  the  Canada  line  down  to  the  Border?  Well, 
sir,  I  think  the  Canada  Une  has  been  bronght  down  practically 
to  the  border  years  ago.  I  scout  the  idea  that  (with  a  few  ex- 
ceptions,) the  gallant  men  of  the  West  are  not  as  true  to  the  in- 
terests of  Virginia  as  the  men  of  any  other  section  of  the  State. 
I  cannot  believe  that  Virginians  are  wanting  in  fidelity  to  the 
State.  I  have  a  great  respect  for  a  Virginian  wherever  I  meet 
him.  I  am  always  inclined  "to  give  him  my  hand  and  call 
him  brother."  And  1  have  the  most  earnest  desire  to  afford  to 
these  gallant  gentlemen  of  Western  Virghiia  what  I  consider 
they  need — protection  for  their  property,  their  homes,  and  their 
families.  Make  them  the  '<  outside  row?"  Why,  sir,  I  ask 
if  they  are  not  already  the  "outside  row?"  Have  they  any 
protection  there  f  )r  their  property?  What  prevents  their  slaves 
from  being  stampeded  under  the  operation  of  the  underground 
rail  road?  What  has  become  of  their  slaves?  I  have  taken 
the  trouble  to  look  a  little  into  this  matter,  and  a  most  re- 
markable state  of  facts  presents  itself  to  me  upon  this  examina- 
tion. 1  find,  sir,  that  the  border  counties,  with  the  number  of 
slaves  in  each  one,  are  as  follows: 

Monongalia 101 

Wetzel 10 

Marshall 29 

Ohio 100 

Brooke 18 

Hancock 2 

Tyler 18 

Pleasants 15 

Wood 176 

Jackson 55 

Mason 386 

Cabell 305 

Wayne 143 

Now,  compare  these  figures  with  those  representing  the  slaves 
of  other  counties,  with  those  showing  the  number  in  Hanover, 
where  there  are  10,000,  or  in  Hahfax,  where  there  are  14,000. 

Perhaps  these  gentlemen  can  inform  me  what  has  become  of 
their  slaves.  I  ask  whether  the  abolitionists  have  not  carried 
them  away?  Pressing  thus  upon  the  border  and  driving  slavery 
from  those  counties,  what,  I  ask,  is  to  prevent  them  from  press- 
ing on  still  farther  and  pushing  it  from  the  counties  which  come 
next  in  order,  and  so  rolling  on  the  wave  of  sectionalism  till 
they  sweep  slavery  away  througli  Virginia,  through  the  Con- 
federate States,  and  into  the  far  South? 

Now,  sir,  I  want  to  stop  this  fearful  wave — to  roll  it  back  from 
our  Western  brethren,  their  homes  and  families.  To  effect  this, 
let  the  Southern  States  ia  sohd  colutnu  leave  the  Northern  Con-^ 


28 

federacy,  and  establish  on  our  free  State  frontier  a  line  <of  milf 
tary  posts  which  will  prevent  further  encroachments    by  the 
abolitionists. 

Sir,  if  the  slaveholding  States  of  this  country  were  ocean 
bound,  there  would  be  no  dangf^r  from  encroachments  on  the 
part  of  the  Abolitionists.  But  they  are  not  ocean-bound.  We 
have  a  Northern  frontier,  bounded  by  the  free  States — by  Penn- 
sylvania and  Ohio — and  as  well  might  yon  attempt  to  keep  back 
the  waves  of  the  ocean,  after  you  have  destroyed  the  shores  of 
that  ocean,  as  to  attempt  to  keep  back  the  aggressions  of  this 
freesoil  party  of  the  North,  unless  you  interpose  some  such  bar- 
rier as  I  have  mentioned,  to  stop  them. 

It  is  said  that  if  we  separate  from  the  North,  we  will  have  to 
keep  an  immense  standing  army,  to  the  ruin  of  the  country.. 
The  gentleman  from  Halifax,  (Mr.  Bruce,)  and  my  friend  from 
Albemarle,  (Mr.  Holcombe,)  have  shown  you  that  there  are  no. 
fears  of  that.  War  is  contrary  to  the  spirit  of  the  age.  The- 
people  of  the  North  are  people  of  commerce  and  of  peace.  They 
will  not  support  a  large  standing  army,  and  we  will  not  be  com- 
pelled to  raise  a  single  man  more  than  they  raise. 

But,  sir,  this  idea  that  the  maintenance  of  an  army  of  15,000 
or  20,000  men  is  going  to  ruin  our  hoped-for  Southern  Confede- 
racy, is  a  most  preposterous  one.  How  is  it  possible  that  it  can 
be  correct?  Ruin  such  a  country,  sir,  by  the  appropriation  of  a 
few  millions  of  dollars  for  its  defence?  Why,  do  not  some  of 
tlie  most  prosperous  and  flourishing  countries  in  the  world  main- 
tain immense  standing  armies  of  hundreds  of  thousands  of  men; 
and  could  not  our  giant  Southern  country  maintain  twenty  or 
thirty  thousand?  Why,  sir,  when  our  cities  were  villages,  our 
farms  forests,  when  our  large  and  beautiful  stores  were  small 
shops,  the  want  of  a  proper  military  force  enabled  Tarlton  and' 
Arnold,  in  the  half  of  a  short  summer,  to  destroy  twelve  millions 
of  property  in  Virginia;  but  that  did  notruin  her;  though  young 
and  feeble  and  bleeding,  she  struggled  and  overcame  it.  When, 
then,  the  great  Southern  Confederacy  is  in  successful  operation; 
when  the  commercial  navies  of  the  v\^orld  ride  in  her  harbors; 
when,  relieved  from  Northen  taxation,  she  has  grown  to  be  in- 
dependent and  prosperous — she  will  no  more  feel  the  burthen  of 
maintaining  an  army  of  fifteen,  or  twer)ty,  or  thirty  thousand 
men,  tlian  would  a  giant  feel  the  stroke  of  a  pigmy's  arm. 
Then  fort  afier  fort  would  spring  up  along  our  free  State  frontier, 
and  be  manned  by  this  army;  thus  would  we  pmtect  our  bre- 
thren, tlw^ir  hoRios  and  pioporf/.  The  Federal^ army  is  row  en- 
gaged in  defending  otn-  extreme  Western  settlements,  stretching 
from  the  Pacific  Ocean  and  the  Gulf  of  Mexico,  south,  to  the 
British  p'vssessions,  north.  In  case  of  separaiion  our  Federal 
army  would  not  have  ti  defmd  the  immense  territory  north  of 
the  Imo  of  thirty-six  degrees  thirty  miaute3|  where   yovi  have 


29 

Mormons  and  savages;  our  half  would  be  south  of  that  line. 
The  Indian  troubles  south  of  that  line  will  probably  be  settled 
in  a  short  time.  Indeed,  I  think  there  is  little  difficulty  expe- 
rienced with  the  Indians  anywhere  south  of  thirty-six  degrees  30 
minutes,  except  in  Texas.  Troubles  there  will  soon  be  ended. 
So  that  the  whole  strength  of  our  force  could  be  concentrated  in 
mihtary  posts  on  cur  free  State  frontier,  and  thus  raise  a  sort 
of  a  Chinese  wall,  and  stay,  if  anything  will,  this  tide  of  North- 
ern aggression. 

Mr.  Chairman,  I  have  endeavored  briefly,  by  historical  facts, 
to  show  the  aggressions  of  these  Northern  people  upon  the 
'rights  and  interests  of  the  people  of  the  South;  that  they  were 
ever  advancing,  never  receding;  that  our  only  safety  was  with 
the  Southern  Confederacy.  I  have  shown  directly  where  and 
when  assaults  have  been  made  upon  us  by  States  and  indivi- 
duals as  well  as  by  the  General  Government. 

Sir,  is  there  nothing  else  that  should  stir  the  blood  of  a  free 
and  gallant  people,  except  interference  with  their  rights?  Is 
slander  nothing?  Is  insult  after  insult  nothing?  Is  defamation 
in  foreign  lands  of  the  honor  of  our  State  and  section  nothing? 
They  have  libelled  our  great  names,  abused  our  fathers  and  our 
families,  and  desecrated  the  very  graves  of  our  ancestors  by 
claiming  that  slaveholders  are  unworthy  of  association  with 
them. 

Sir,  neither  individuals  or  nations  can  submit,  habitually,  to 
insult  and  indignity,  without  degradation  so  fearful,  that  they 
become  ultimately  as  base  as  the  denunciations  of  the  oppressors 
proclaim  them.  The  spiritual  dilapidation  goes  on;  it  may  be 
slowly,  but  surely,  and  soon  or  late  moral  ruin  is  the  result.  On 
the  other  hand,  men  cannot  be  made  slavish  or  mean,  who 
strongly  will  to  be  free  and  noble.  Before  they  can  be  trampled 
on,  their  *'  spirits  high"  must  be  bowed  to  the  dust.  Then  may 
it  truly  be  said  of  them: 

"Enough — no  foreign  foe  could  quell 
Tliy  soul,  till  from  itself  it  fell. 
Yes — self-abasement  paved  the  way 
To  villain  bonds  and  despot  sway." 

Sir,  I  for  one,  will  never  consent  to  live  or  hold  intercourse 
with  men  who  claim  that  I  am  socially  their  inferior.  The  in- 
solent pretension  of  those  who — whether  nations  or  individuals — 
have  invariably  the  least  right  to  make  it;  the  bloated  arrogance 
and  impudence  which  prefers  such  a  claim,  will  be  met  by  true 
men  with  the  scorn  atid  defiance  of  border  chivalry. 

•'I  tell  thee  thou'rt  defied! 
And  if  thou  said'st  I  am  not  peer  . 
To  any  lord  in  Scotland  here — 
Jjowland  or  Highland,  far  or  near, 
Lord  Angus— thou  hast  lied!" 


30 

The  fanatical,  meddlesome,  overbearing  disposition  of  the 
Puritans — their  arrogant,  conceited  and  wicked  determination  to 
ignore  tlie  moral  fact  that  individuals  as  well  as  nations  have 
quite  enongli  to  do  to  keep  evil  from  their  own  characters  with- 
out interfering  with  others;  their  ullraism  and  persistent  claim 
to  regulate  and  control  the  social  rights  and  customs  of  other 
people,  has  delnged.more  than  one  country  in  blood.  These 
detestable  qualities  altogether  outweigh  everything  that  is  good 
in  them,  and  render  them  the  greatest  curse  that  can  be  inflicted 
on  a  country.  It  would  have  been  better  for  humanity  had  their 
Plymouth  rock  been  riven  by  an  earthquake  and  their  May- 
flower sunk  to  the  bottom  of  the  ocean.  In  England  they 
persecuted  the  families,  razed  the  houses  and  cut  down  the  an- 
cestral oaks  of  the  cavaliers.  So  bitter — so  arrogant — so  con- 
ceited and  teiKicions  of  their  peculiar  views — so  intolerant  were 
they,  that  they  became  separated  from  the  great  body  of  consti- 
tutional reformers,  and  the  reactionary  spirit  of  a  gaUant  people 
hurled  them  from  power  like  Satan  from  Paradise,  and  drove 
them  beyond  the  ocean.  Whether  on  Asnerican  soil  they  are  to 
rele^rn  in  bitterness  and  blood  this  historical  lesson;  whether 
after  having  desolated  with  fire  and  sword  the  homes  of  the 
South,  they  arc  again,  by  the  outraged  spirit  of  conservatism,  to 
be  voted  a  nuisance,  and  pushed  over  or  into  the  sea,  I  am  not 
prophet  enough  to  tell.  But  this  I  do  know,  that  ''joined  to 
their  idols,"  and  failing  to  profit  by  the  evil  example  of  their 
ancestors,  they  are  again  stirring  up  strife  on  another  continent — 
that  with  no  earthly  right  to  interfere  with  tliem  in  any  way, 
they  have  chosen  to  make  themselves  the  bitter  enen)ies  of  the 
peace,  happiness  and  safety  of  the  gentlemen  of  the  South;  that 
while  gentlemen  hate  btrifeand  are  constitutionally  quiet,  social 
and  peaceable,  yet,  combining  science  with  courage,  when 
driven  to  resistance  they  pursue  their  enemies  with  the  terrible 
energy  of  fnries — the  resistless  sweep  of  avenging  angels — and 
that  while  these  our  hereditary  foes  were  driven  from  Britain 
with  execrations  and  curses,  the  descendants  of  the  bleeding 
Cavaliers  sit  again  in  peace  and  happiness  in  their  once  desolate 
but  now  beautiful  homes,  or  under  the  shade  of  their  renovated 
groves. 

Mr.  Chairman,  no  man  has  looked  with  more  reverence  on  the 
flag,  or  regarded  with  more  idolatrous  fondness  the  Union  of 
these  States  than  1.  I  have  remembered  how  that  flag  floiited  in. 
triumph  in  conflicts  wiien  the  only  aspirations  of  the  heroes  and 
patriots  Avho  poured  out  their  blood  beneath  its  f )lds  were  f)r  the 
honor  and  glory  of  their  country;  and  I  have  remembered  how 
the  majestic  Union  of  our  fathers  carried  into  every  clime,  not 
the  trembling  terror  inspired  by  the  Roman  name,  when  its 
eagles  o'ershadowed  the  world,  but  the  awe,  the  respect,  the  love 
■which  the  great  heart  of  the  whole  race  accords  to  freedom,  to 


81 

virtue  and  to  justice;  and  I  hnve  said,  in  my  '^  heart  of  hearts," 
should  the  South,  to  preserve  its  own  existence,  have  to  strike 
down  that  flag,  her  every  true  son  would  exclaim,  in  nionrnful 
resoUition,witli  the  great  bard  of  Avon  :  "  This  s<rr<>w's  heavenly; 
it  strikes  where  it  dotli  love."  It  has  been  present  to  my  mind 
that  this  great  country  was  formed  by  the  compact  of  indepen- 
dent sovereignties,  not  with  the  right,  first,  of  libel,  and  then  of 
destruction  by  one  part  of  tlie  institutions  of  the  other,  but  with 
an  endorsetnent  of  the  institutions  of  the  whole  country,  and  an 
engagement  of  honor,  and  of  law,  in  the  very  act  of  Union,  to 
defend  these  institutions  to  the  death.  Sir,  I  am  forced  to  re- 
member how  these  solemn  covenants  have  been  fraudulently  and 
foully  repudiated  by  tho  North.  How  that  PIvirisaical  land  of 
every  ism  which  degrades  rnan  to  a  level  with  brutes,  In^delity, 
Spiritualism,  Mormonism,  Free  Soil — which  nn-ans  to  rob  a 
partner  of  all  the  partnership  effects — Free  Spc-ch,  which,  with 
them,  is  the  right  of  rank  and  reeking  l)lackguardism,  and 
atrocious  slander  on  the  South;  Free  Love,  which  means  to  roll 
hack  the  tide  of  refinement  and  virtue,  for  the  saturnalia,  the 
hell  of  vileness  and  iniquity,  has,  in  the  blended  spirit  of  avarice 
and  fanaticism,  not  only  assailed  our  fair  fame  abroad,  but  our 
very  household  gods  at  home.  They,  our  pseudo  brothers, 
have  sought  to  direct  upon  us,  in  foreign  lands,  ''the  slow 
moving  finger  of  scorn."  Great  names  adorn  our  Southern 
annals — Washington  and  Jefferson,  Madison  and  Monroe,  Car- 
roll and  Rutledge,  and  a  host  of  others.  Splendid  mausoleums 
mark  the  resting  places  of  these  great  men,  and  they  have  still 
nobler  monuments  in  the  hearts  of  their  countiymen.  But  the 
sacrilegious  effort  is  made  to.  blacken  their  sacred  fame  because 
they  were  slaveholders.  Added  to  this,  it  is  sought  to  outrage 
the  reputation  and  pnjfane  the  sanctity  of  t!ie  social  circle.  Our 
very  ancestors  are  to  be  libelled  because  they  were  slaveholders. 
Sir,  facts,  stored  in  the  memory  of  every  gentleman  in  this  hall, 
give  the  lie  to  these  atrocious  slanders. 

Who  is  there,  reared  in  Virginia,  whose  memory,  in  reverting 
to  the  days  of  his  childhood,  does  not  give  him  a  thousand 
pleasant  memories  of  the  patriarchal  institution  of  the  State — of 
the  good  will  l;et\veen  the  servants  and  the  fatnilies  of  their 
masters — of  the  many  errands  of  kindness  on  which  he  lias 
been  sent  to  old  or  sick  domestics  of  the  household,  and  of  the 
scenes  in  which  these  domestics  would  bless  with  their  latest 
breath  the  benevolence  of  their  owners?  Raise  the  curtain  of 
the  past,  and,  forgetting  the  stern  and  wasting  duties  of  man- 
hood, he  is  carried  back  to  the  time  when  he  was  a  happy  mem- 
ber of  a  happy  family  circle.  Before  him,  in  memory,  rises 
the  aged  and  honored  head  and  patriarch  of  the  house,  whose 
feeble  steps,  whose  personal  goodness,  whose  position  of  com- 
mon •  ancestor,  commanded  for  him  the  pious  love  and  care  of 


X  32 

his  descendants.  He  recalls  the  manly  form  of  one  whose  kind 
words  linger  forever  in  his  memory — who  bnre.  to  him  the  sacred 
name  of  father.  A  soft  yet  bright  eye  sheds  upon  him  its  mild 
and  beautiful  light  in  pity  and  in  love  as  his  youthful  mother 
walches  him  Avith  teuderest  devotion.  As  childhood  fides  in 
the  past  and  boyhood  puts  on  its  free  and  joyous  attributes,  that 
mother's  love  still  encircles  him  like  the  atmospliere  of  a  holier 
and  better  clime.  Her  tears  fall  upon  his  head  like  the  dews  of 
Heaven,  Her  prayers  ascend  to  God  in  fond  and  fervent  aspi- 
rations for  blessings  upon  him  even  beyond  the  lot  of  man;  and 
in  after  years  amid  the  stirring  scenes  of  life,  the  memory  of 
that  mother's  counsel  and  that  mother's  love  will  belter  defend 
him  from  dishonor  than  a  thousand  bristling  bayonets.  Time 
rolls  on,  and  these  sacred  forms  depart,  and  he  exclaims  in  bit- 
terness of  heart,  all,  all  gone  to  return  no  more  forever.  They 
have  sought  the  sanctuary  of  the  dead,  where  repose  other  ho- 
nored ones  in  whose  veins  once  coursed  the  same  life  blood. 
Green  grows  the  long  grass  and  sweetly  bloom  the  flowers 
planted  on  their  graves  by  the  hand  of  affection,  and  in  the  star- 
light and  sun-light  glimmers  in  palid  lustre  the  monumental 
marble,  with  the  simple  inscriptions  of  departed  worth.  With 
throbbing  brow  the  descendant  of  that  house  says  these  were 
mine,  and  though  dead  their  pure  and  virtuous  memories  live. 
But  Abolitionism,  that  fiendish  libeller,  says  cursed  be  they  for 
they  were  slaveholders.  Sir,  this  is  enough  to  make  the  blood  of 
a  Southern  freeman  not  only  boil,  but  dance  through  his  veins 
'Mike  burning  alcohol."  Let  ns  say  to  these  oppressors  of  the 
South,  compromises  with  yon  are  as  nought.  "  Thus  far  shalt 
thon  go  and  no  farther."  We  demand  stern,  full  and  exact 
justice;  cease  your  assaults  on  our  institutions;  stop  your  agita- 
tion and  give  us  peace,  that  peace  to  which  your  honor  bound 
you  in  the  compact  of  Union;  bow  to  the  decision  of  the  Su- 
preme Court;  sweep  from  the  statutes  of  your  States  every  en- 
actment warring  on  our  property;  cease  your  attacks  on  the  laws 
which  have  established  slavery  in  places  under  the  jurisdiction 
of  the  Federal  Government;  confess  that  we  came  into  the 
Union  on  terms  of  perfect  equality  with  you,  and  that  wherever, 
in  the  common  territories,  our  flag  floats,  our  property  has  the 
same  right  to  protection  that  yours  has;  regard  us,  and  let  your 
legislation  regard  us  as  equals,  not  tributaries,  and  the  seceded 
South  may  return.  The  Union  may  again  stretch  its  grand 
proportions  from  Maine  to  California,  from  the  Atlantic  to  the 
Pacific.  Deny  us  these,  our  rights,  and  our  separation  from  you 
is  eternal. 


